11.         HOUSING

11.1.                    INTRODUCTION: Housing development in Boundary County has traditionally been limited to a small portion of Boundary County’s land mass, mostly along the Kootenai River and through the valleys between the Selkirk, Purcell and Cabinet Mountains, with most housing clustered around existing communities, to include Eastport, Porthill, Naples and in the Three Mile Junction area. The greatest majority of residential structures and the highest density of homes are within the incorporated areas of the county; Bonners Ferry and Moyie Springs. While Boundary County does not provide residential infrastructure with the exception of roads, numerous public facility associations, most notably water districts, have been formed to provide essential services to make many areas more conducive to residential development. Residential development Boundary County has long been minimally regulated and no construction standards additional to those required by the state and federal governments have been imposed by the county. Homes here range the gamut from palatial estates to homes that would be considered substandard by all but those who built and live in them.

11.2.                    HOUSING ASSESSMENT: At the time of this writing, the Boundary County Assessor’s Office records show a total of 9,559 parcels in existence on Boundary County’s tax rolls, and provide the following breakdown of residential categories:

11.2.1.  Improved rural residential tracts, 870; unimproved rural residential tracts, 1,209.

11.2.2.  Improved rural subdivision residential lots; 256, unimproved rural subdivision residential lots, 384.

11.2.3.  Improvements on other rural land; 8, unimproved lots, other rural land; 497.

11.2.4.  Improved residential lots inside city limits; 983, unimproved residential lots inside city limits; 452.

11.2.5.  Improvements on agricultural and forest land, 2,085 (these are not necessarily residential structures)

11.3.                    HOUSING TYPES: Boundary County does not collect data on housing types, except to differentiate between framed housing and mobile/manufactured housing. On the current assessor’s record, there are 952 mobile/manufactured homes in Boundary County, and 715 of them have improvements.

11.4.                    HOUSING TRENDS: Between 1999 and 2004, the number of zoning certificates that were issued in Boundary County declined steadily until 2003 and 2004, when the number of annual permits issued began a slow climb. In 2005 the number of permits issued soared dramatically, and continued to rise through 2006. In the first six months of 2007, the number of permits issued declined over the same date the preceding year, but remains high. In addition to applications for zoning certificates, the number of residential lots created through subdivisions has recently taken a huge jump forward, while the price of land has nearly doubled.

11.5.                    HOUSING NEEDS: Based on study of data from the population component, it is clear that population in Boundary County is both growing and aging. This is reflected in the fact that the great majority of those making application for zoning certificates are people who have reached or are nearing retirement age, while very few applicants have been in the 20-30 age group.

11.6.                    AFFORDABLE HOUSING: With the rising costs of home construction, combined with increasing land prices, it is reasonable to assume that the affordability of a home will continue to be dependent upon parcel size, with those areas allowing increased residential density offering the most affordable housing.

11.7.                    SUBDIVISIONS/PLANNED-UNIT DEVELOPMENTS: There are currently 51 rural subdivisions in Boundary County dating from the turn of the century to present. Most of them, particularly those established prior to the 1970s, impose no covenants or restrictions and make no provision for placement or availability of utilities. The number of subdivision applications jumped exponentially in 2005, coinciding with a rapid increase in the price of land.

Subdivision Applications

11.8.                    BUILDING PERMITS/ZONING CERTIFICATES: Boundary County does not presently require building permits for construction of a residence, instead issuing a zoning certificate that looks at flood zone, airport overlay, parcel size in each zone district and setbacks. In 2000, the number of certificates issued per year declined from 83 to 51 and the number remained low from 2000 to 2003 before beginning to climb again in 2004. In 2005, a record number of permits was issued for residential construction in Boundary County, and the number of applications in the first quarter of 2006 shows a continuation of that trend.

Zoning Certificates Issued

Chapter 12, Economic Development a