10.1. COMMUNITY DESIGN ASSESSMENT: Until October 2, 2005, Boundary County government has not made recommendations nor developed standards as relate to community design or landscaping, building design or tree planting, relying instead on a natural progression of growth as determined by the property owner. On October 2, 2005, in response to the unregulated division of land and complaints arising there from, primarily over erosion of the rural lifestyle, County Commissioners enacted an emergency ordinance limiting the partition of land below the minimum parcel size in each zone district and establishing minimum road standards and utility requirements for subdivisions proposed in high-density areas where parcels below two acres in size are permitted. Rather than imposing community design standards, county policy has been geared to the furtherance of free enterprise and economic development, particularly as regards harvest or extraction and utilization of Boundary County’s natural resources, and to encourage the initiative of property owners to use their land in furtherance of their own best interest, both economic and social.
10.2. COMMUNITY CENTERS: As a result of natural growth beginning early in the 20th century, development within Boundary County has occurred around two incorporated and three unincorporated community centers, whose favorable locations provided advantages in topography and transportation. The City of Bonners Ferry grew up around a ferry across the Kootenai River and is the primary residential and commercial center in the county. The City of Moyie Springs developed around an early logging settlement. Unincorporated communities include Naples, Eastport, and Porthill, which combine the attributes of small towns, offering a mixture of uses, including residential, commercial and industrial. More recently, by virtue of its location at the intersection of U.S. 95 and Highway 2, Three Mile Junction has become a commercial center as well. In addition to community centers are less densely populated “communities,” connected more by topography and land use than by common design, including but not limited to Highland Flats, Shiloh, Pleasant Valley, Copeland, and Curley Creek. While Boundary County provides nothing in the way of physical infrastructure except roads, these and other communities have organized and established various associations to provide their own infrastructure, such as water and fire associations.
10.3. SUBDIVISIONS: Until October 2, 2005, the majority of subdivisions platted in Boundary County have been simple subdivisions of land with few or no covenants and restrictions and no public review. Basic standards for high-density subdivisions were established with the adoption of Ordinance 2006-01, including utility and access easement requirements, road standards and the requirement for the developer to provide available utilities prior to the sale of lots. A list of all subdivisions within Boundary County as of August 9, 2007, are available at Appendix VII.