Staff report issued for Beartaria hearing

June 16, 2022

The Boundary County Planning and Zoning administration has released its staff report, prepared by assistant contract planner Tessa Vogel, as regards the conditional use permit application of Struggle Bear LLC to establish a multi-structure residential use to allow for four existing additional primary single-family dwellings on a 10-acre parcel along the Moyie River off Earl Lane Road.

While "four existing additional primary single-family dwellings" is ambiguous, site plans indicate a total of five primary dwellings, some already built, and two "accessory" structures.

If approved, the permit and any conditions opposed would become the controlling legal document for both development and use of the property.

Owen Benjamin, a former Hollywood comic living in Sandpoint, drew sharp concern last year not only from neighboring property owners, most of them retired elderly, but from many in the community concerned by his near daily blogs of an “Aryan Nations” style compound springing up along the Moyie River.

The staff report notes that administrators were notified by the applicant, Owen Benjamin, "that they no longer wish to allow people to camp on site for a fee and only wish to use the property in a private recreational manner."

The Boundary County Planning and Zoning Commission will hold public hearing at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, June 23, at the Fairgrounds Memorial Hall, 6571 Recreation Park Road, to take comment.