COEUR d'ALENE - Kootenai County commissioners approved on Tuesday an $89,960 amendment to their contract with Kendig Keast Collaborative to fix the Unified Land Use Code.

The amendment includes an additional $13,000 in optional work, bringing the total new expenditure as high as $102,960.

Responding to a steady stream of public outcry, county commissioners and the County Planning Commission asked the land use consultant in July to prepare a prospectus that would outline how his firm would go about revising the ULUC to incorporate many of the concerns that have arisen with the proposal.

Bret Keast submitted a proposal for that prospectus to the county on Aug. 5, outlining a two-phased approach that he would like to use.

In the first phase, Keast wants to develop a prospectus that would consolidate, reorganize and reformat the ULUC "to the extent necessary and practicable."

His cost for that alone is $5,400.

Janet Robnett, a land use attorney who sat on the planning commission's technical review committee, attended Tuesday's meeting and spoke to the issue after commissioners approved the amendment.

Robnett said she was at the planning commission meeting when they were discussing how they were going to deal with the problems they have with the ULUC. She said the planning commission was at a standstill, and the majority of the commission wanted to throw the whole thing out and start over.

But the group eventually agreed to contact Bret Keast and ask him to tell the commission how he would go about fixing the proposal if that's the direction they chose to go.

"Now we are going to spend $5,400 for him to tell us how he is going to fix it," she said.

Bob Bingham, of the Northwest Property Owners Alliance, also attended the meeting.

"I am disappointed that the BOCC (Board of County Commissioners) approved an addendum to the contract to pay them more money to do something they didn't do in the first contract," he said, adding that if the commissioners read the original contract they would find that the amendment spells out almost verbatim what was supposed to be accomplished in the first contract.

"Look at the first contract," he said. "You'll read the same exact words."

Robnett agreed with Bingham, saying she's frustrated with the process and that she has been waiting to comment on the final version of the proposal.

"I have been waiting for the rat to come back out of the snake," she said. "I am a little concerned that when I do, I will be told it's too late."

Commissioner Todd Tondee said when the rat comes out of the snake, there will be another public comment period before the proposal is considered by the planning commission.

Public comments are also being accepted on the current proposal, he added. Comments can be submitted to the planning director.

In the amendment, Keast estimates a timeline for completion of the revision. He envisions the prospectus will be completed by Aug. 30. He proposed a workshop with Board of County Commissioners and the Planning Commission to review the plan sometime in September.

Keast would have a revised zoning map completed by Jan. 30, 2014, and proposed a Planning Commission review sometime in February.

Public hearings could then be rescheduled for February and March of 2014.