COEUR d'ALENE - The Kootenai County commissioners decided this week that the land-use code writing process would be done in-house.

The county recently dumped Texas-based consultant Kendig Keast Collaborative, which had been hired to lead that project.

Now brand-new community development director David Callahan's department personnel, including former director Scott Clark, are on their own to come up with another draft. Callahan will spearhead the effort.

"I think our staff has a very good feel of the tenor of the community," County Commissioner Dan Green said. "To bring another consultant in and to bring them up to speed only elongates the process. We want to try and shorten the time frame, not lengthen it."

The in-house effort will make use of the consultant's draft Unified Land Use Code as a "resource document," said County Commissioner Todd Tondee. County staff will use the current codes as a base to build from, Tondee said.

"(The draft ULUC) has a lot of information in it and a lot of work was put into it," Tondee said. The county will use the good and leave out the bad.

"There are parts of it that are appropriate and applicable," Green said.

A new land-use code would be used to implement the comprehensive plan and to update and fix issues with current ordinances.

Tondee said the commissioners have asked the county's personnel to come back with a plan and a timeline for a new draft.

He said the county will still accept public input, but it will no longer hold hearings or meetings to solicit it.

"We feel we have a lot of information," he said.

"To date, a tremendous amount of public and agency input has been received which culminated in the draft ULUC," said County Commissioner Jai Nelson. "While I did not support the draft, these efforts and resources remain enormously valuable."

With another draft, a public review process would open.

"This document will be honed and then submitted to the planning commission along with input from their upcoming workshops which are planned to be on a simultaneous path and time frame," Nelson said. "The planning commission will then hold public hearings as will the board (of county commissioners)."