SANDPOINT — Bonner County commissioners have appointed a hearing examiner to ease some of the workload the Planning & Zoning Commission is carrying.

The hearing examiner would handle setback variances, short plats and more intensive home-occupation businesses in the county.

Planning Director Clare Marley said additional types of land-use proposals could be added to the list of hearing examiner duties.

“If it looks like it’s a successful program, we might add some more things later, but that would be done through ordinance amendment,” she said.

The appointment of a hearing examiner was an upshot of the county’s recent overhaul of its land-use code. Under state law, Idaho counties can appoint engineers, architects and land-use planners to act as hearing examiners.

On Tuesday, county commissioners unanimously appointed Charlie Gay, an engineer who lives in Kootenai County, to serve as Bonner County’s first hearing examiner. Gay has been Bonner County’s staff engineer since 2005.

“This will speed up a bunch of things,” county Commissioner Cornel Rasor said.

The appointment is not targeted at freeing up Planning Department staff time because they’ll still have to conduct site visits, generate reports and prepare for public hearings.

“The objective was to free up the planning commission and loosen the bottleneck,” said Marley.

The move is also anticipated to save the county some money. Planning commissioners volunteer their time, although they are compensated for mileage they rack up commuting to public hearings.

The planning commission traditionally meets once a month, but has been having to meet more frequently to keep pace with influx of land-use proposals. Marley said the average per-hearing mileage cost is about $135.

“It could save quite a bit in mileage,” said Marley.

Gay will be paid $185 per hearing and another $45 if a site visit is needed.