Save Hayden "News" Blog

Comprehensive Plans and Zoning Regulations can be difficult to understand.   Instead of trying to understand the problem at once, it is sometime easier to just look at one aspect at a time.  That is the approach we have taken in some of the articles from the Save Hayden News Blog.   Most articles only address explain a single problem with Hayden's zoning regulations, but taken together, they cover a wide range of issues. 

• P & Z Public Hearings are a Sham —  When the new Comp Plan was adopted, City laws were changed that streamlined development decisions reduced the influence of current residents on zoning decisions.
• Promised MR Density Limits are Unenforceable —  City Administrators claim the "Mixed Residential" Zone is limited to 8 dwellings per acre, but the actual zoning regulations allow for much  higher densities.  
• What's SUP?  How Hayden Lost its Voice — Explains how changes allowing "By Right" Development of Multi-family housing instead of relying on "Special Use Permits" strips Hayden Citizens of their ability to have a voice in how their city grows. 
• Serious Problems with the 2040 Comp Plan   — Provides a survey of a multitude of problems with the 2040 Comprehensive Plan.

"N.I. Slow Growth Research" Blog

Another Blog that includes articles pertaining to the Hayden 2040 Comp Plan and Zoning Regulations is the North Idaho Slow Growth Research Blog.   It covers issue from the same point of view as Save Hayden, but is focused on county-wide issues and general housing and development issues, rather than Hayden in particular. It includes numerous articles however, that could help residents understand what Comp Plans are use for and who is behind them.

• How to Read Your City's Comprehensive Plan — Explains what Comp Plans are used for and how to read them.  
• How KMPO Dictates Kootenai's Growth Plans — Explains where the aggressive population growth in the 2040 Comp Plan came from. 

Other Sources of Information

These are links to state, federal, and international organizations and agencies that have influenced Hayden's 2040 Comprehensive Plan, for good or evil.     

• Title 67, Chapter 65: Local Land Use Planning — Idaho Statutes Governing Comprehensive Plans
• Urban Land Institute, Idaho  —  The Urban Land Institute is an international forum that organizes "Agenda 21" style Urban Planning conferences and seminars.   It's mission is to "shape the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide."  It does this by actively recruting real estate professions, financial institutions, investors, developers, and politicians at a regional level to get involved and help promote their globalist densification agenda. 
• Idaho Smart Growth  —   Educational Non Profit Associate supported by ULI that actively promotes "Smart Growth" densification concepts. "Since 2000, Idaho Smart Growth has worked with communities and individuals to help build communities that are healthy, safe and resilient. We are a progressive, comprehensive resource center working towards a more sustainable pattern of growth, connecting people to places."

Why 2040?  Why not 2021?

The first confusing thing about Hayden's 2040 Comprehensive Plan is that it is referred to as the 2040 Plan.  It should be called the 2021 Plan to indicate the year it was adopted.   The 2040 refers to a vision of Hayden 20 years in the future, but it is not the vision of Hayden citizens. The Hayden 2040 plan is rather, part of a nationwide effort to rezone all American cities for higher densities, with the idea of reducing "car-dependence". The essentials of the plan were not developed with the unique aspects of Hayden in mind. Rather, they were imposed on the city by a network of state, federal, and international agencies.

Some people refer to this network of globalist agencies as "Agenda 21".  But whether you believe in such a conspiracy or not, it is undeniably true that in the last few years hundreds of cities world wide have been asked to develop "2040 Plans" for densification.  Many other cities are going through the same process.  (for example, see the 2040 City plans of Roanoke, Virginia,  St. Paul, Minnesota, and Dubai, UAE)   

Hayden's 2040 Comprehensive Plan

2019, KMPO, a federal agency overseeing urban development in Kootenai cities, provided city planners with aggressive population growth numbers and pursuaded them to update their Comprehensive plans.   These updates were made during Covid lockdowns with limited public input and when Hayden's 2040 Plan was passed in May 2021 it generated immediate controversy.

The 2040 Comp Plan preserved RS and R1 as Residential zones, but added two new zones intended to provide more "options" for higher density housing.

• Mixed Residential (MR)  — Single Family, Duplex, Triplex, Townhome,  Cottage. Min 1.2 acre parcel, max 70% lot cover (Orange on map). 
• Mixed Use (MU)  —  Multi-family ONLY zone (no individually platted residential lots).  12-15 units per acre.  Max 70% lot cover.   MU can be commercial, apartments, or both.  Mult-family development allowed By Right.   No City Council approval required.  

The 2040 Plan also tried to get rid of the Residential Multi-Family (R-MF) zone, but the city-initiated effort to rezone all R-MF parcels but was unsuccessful. Because of this, R-MF has been re-introduced as a "interim ordinance" set to expire in September 2022.   

The following links refer to the current 2040 City of Hayden Comprehensive Plan, and the updated Title 11 Zoning code associated with it.  

• City of Hayden, 2040 Comprehensive Plan
• City of Hayden Title 11 Zoning Regulations
• General Standards for approval of Conditional Use Permit (ordinance 619, Spring 2021)

Both the 2040 Comp Plan and new Title 11 Zoning Regulations are completely reorganized relative to earlier versions.  For this reason they are difficult to compare.  In the case of both documents, much of the text is preserved, but it has been moved and relabeld so that a side by side analysis is very difficult, and it is hard to figure out exactly what changes were made. 

Note:  The above map is from Summer 2022, and does not incorporate the R-MF to MR citywide rezone.

The information and links in this section refer to the Zoning maps and codes guided the development of Hayden between 2008 and 2020.  In the spring of 2021 a new "2040" Comprehensive plan for the City of Hayden was adopted, and at the same time new set of Zoning Regulations--commonly known as "Title 11" were enacted.  The new plan and zoning regulations, were in many ways a dramatic departure from those that they replaced.  

The now-obsolete 2008 Comprehensive Plan for hayden envisioned a rural-suburban town, with most residential areas dedicated to owner-occupied, single family homes. The Plan recognized three residential zoning codes and also, under certain conditions, allowed multi-family structures in Commercial zones.

• Residential Suburban (RS) — Single Family, min .5 acre.  (Green stripes on map) 
• Residential Single Family (R1) — Single Family, min .2 acre.   (Yellow on map)
• Residential Multi-family (R-MF) —  Single Family, Duplex, Triplex, Fourplex.  Min .2 acre; max 35% lot coverage. (Brown on Map) 
• Multi-family with Special Use Permit — Apartments allowed in Commercial and R-MF zones with Special Use Permit.  Max lot coverage 35%.  Subject to P/Z and City Council Approval.  Commercial is in red on map, but specific multi-family parcels are not indicated. 

The following are documents governing land use in Hayden are now obsolete, but when trying to understand the effects of recent changes, it is important to be able to compare them to the documents that they replaced.. 

• City of Hayden 2008 Comprehensive Plan
• City of Hayden, Title 11 Zoning Regulations (current as of June 2020).  
• General Standards for Approval of Special Use Permit (current of June 2020).

The Comp Plan is a general, high level document that describes the planner's "Vision" for Hayden. However, most legally building codes, procedures, and standards of approval are laid out in the Title 11 Zoning Reuglations.  For example, design standards, minimum lot sizes, set backs, allowable uses, definition of zone types, and all laws governing "planning and zoning" decisions are part of the "Title 11" of Hayden's municiple code.