COEUR d'ALENE - Three local business groups are planning a free public forum on June 4 to discuss and educate their membership on Kootenai County's proposed Unified Land Use Code.

The Coeur d'Alene Chamber of Commerce, the Coeur d'Alene Association of Realtors and the North Idaho Building Contractors association are co-hosting the event at the Salvation Army Kroc Center starting at 7:30 a.m.

While the event is intended to educate the members of those organizations, the event is open to the public said Steve Wilson, CEO of the Coeur d'Alene chamber.

"Our concept is to have an open forum to discuss the process that was used so far to develop the proposal," Wilson said. "And we also want to look at the process going forward."

He said his organization has been involved in the development of the ULUC along the way, but they want to ensure that as the plan is implemented that the chamber's concerns are met.

"It took many years to develop the comp plan, and now we are taking about 18 months to implement the land use codes," Wilson said. "We just want to make sure that the proper due diligence is done before this goes much further."

Wilson said there are still issues the chamber wants addressed to make sure the proposal is the right fit for the whole community.

Rick Vernon, executive officer of the Coeur d'Alene Association of Realtors, said his organization has also been involved in the development of the ULUC.

He said currently the proposed document has more of an urbanized approach to planning in the traditionally rural areas of the community.

"I don't think there was any intent on anyone's behalf to cause any problems with this," he said. "But the way this was written there may be some unintended consequences."

Vernon said the county wanted to make the document more user-friendly than the current code, but that hasn't transpired quite yet.

"We are a little concerned that this may not come out as user-friendly as we would like to see it," he added. "It is still a little bit convoluted in places."

He said the consultant that began the process of developing Kootenai County's ULUC has left the firm, and while transitioning to another planner some of the recommendations made by the community might have been overlooked.

"Essentially one of the consultants may not have implemented all of the recommendations from the technical committee," he said. "At this point it's a matter of whether those concerns are being addressed, or whether they will be addressed."

Vernon said his association is mainly concerned that the new code doesn't dramatically impact the rural areas of the county.

"Our mission in life is to protect personal property rights," he said. "We want to make sure that the proposed zoning changes aren't too dramatic."

Larry Jeffres, director of the North Idaho Building and Contractors Association, said last week that his members have many of the same concerns as the Realtors and the chamber.

Wilson said there will be a panel at the event that includes Kootenai County Commissioner Dan Green, Tom Torgerson representing the Realtors, local land use attorney Janet Robinett, former county planner Rand Wichman, and Planning Commissioner Linda Fillios.

Jeff Smith, who represents the chamber's public policy committee, will moderate the event.

Wilson said the audience will be allowed to submit written questions and they will try to get through them all in the allotted amount of time.

"In the end we want to end up with a document that is user friendly and understandable," Wilson said. "We want something that the county commissioners feel good about adopting."