COEUR d’ALENE — In an effort to protect their water, Cougar Gulch residents are petitioning the county to change the area’s zoning.

The proposed rezoning area includes about 340 parcels, totaling a little more than 3,600 acres, currently zoned as agricultural-suburban. The minimum parcel size for that zoning is 2 acres, with some exceptions.

Residents say they’ve experienced water supply problems, with too many wells drawing on a limited water supply.

“The people that have lived here for years are concerned that, if we leave it up to the county to address, it may be too late,” said Cougar Gulch resident Karl Meier. “The entire community banded together to let (the county) know.”

So far, 75% of Cougar Gulch property owners have signed a petition to change the area’s zoning to rural. The land owned by these petition-signers comprises about two-thirds of the total acreage.

A change to rural zoning would set the minimum parcel size at 5 acres.

The remaining property owners have not yet responded to the petition, Meier said, though all have been contacted. No opposition to the change has come forward.

Meier said residents have worked closely with Community Development Director David Callahan while working to get the area rezoned.

Callahan said at a Thursday meeting of the Planning & Zoning Commission he’s mindful of the fact that rezoning isn’t a permanent solution to the water supply problems. Rather, the change would provide more time to find a solution.

“This doesn’t fix the issue,” he said. “It’s an incremental movement in the right direction.”

In a worst-case scenario, Meier said, the wells drying up would make Cougar Gulch uninhabitable.

“If we don’t solve this, it could be disastrous,” Meier said.

A special meeting before county commissioners on the matter is likely to happen in November.

During Thursday’s meeting, the commission also discussed a proposal to rezone more than 200 parcels located within the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s reservation boundaries.

Under the proposed area-wide zone change, some tribally owned, privately owned and leased properties within the Coeur d’Alene Reservation boundaries that are currently zoned rural would be designated agricultural.

Subdivisions are currently permitted in rural zones with a minimum lot size of 5 acres. If the parcels within the Tribe’s boundaries are rezoned, subdivisions will no longer be allowed.

Callahan said a “handful” of opponents to the rezoning have come forward, though he noted that at least one property owner who objects to the proposed rezoning would not actually be affected by it.

The next hearing on the proposal has not yet been scheduled.