The construction of a food service building for the Post Falls School District and two separate subdivisions were unanimously approved Tuesday night by the Post Falls Planning and Zoning Commission.

A food distribution center will be built on school district property on the southern 100 feet of Prairie View Elementary at the northeast corner of Greensferry Road and Horsehaven Avenue.

“It is allowed through this special use permit process,” planning manager Jon Manley said during the meeting.

Superintendent Dena Naccarato, who also spoke during the meeting, said the district does not currently have a food distribution center.

“What we discovered during the pandemic was that many of our service providers would no longer deliver to 11 different school sites," she said, adding that Post Falls is the only Idaho district of its size operating without this kind of facility. She said the district will use Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) money for the site.

“We have set aside some of those federal funds in order to construct this if this group deems it appropriate so that it would be of no cost to our taxpayers," she said.

She said increased traffic is not anticipated coming and going from the distribution center.

"We actually expect a semi to come in once a week, and then we will have our small vans deliver out to our 11 district sites,” Naccarato said. “We don’t expect there to be a huge traffic implication for those people who live in subdivisions around Prairie View or the high school."

Commissioner Nancy Hampe said she saw no problem with this project.

“Since the school was already there, it was approved under special use, I can’t see any reason this wouldn’t be a good fit there,” she said.

No public testimony was given regarding the school district's food distribution center during the public hearing, however several spoke out against the proposed Fair Estates Subdivision, which will be constructed on the southwest corner of Prairie Avenue and Chase Road on top of the Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer. Just over 6 acres will be subdivided into 20 lots in single-family residential zoning.

Stephanie Montreuil, who lives in that neighborhood, shared her concerns about traffic and having a street funnel traffic into a cul-de-sac.

"You’re going to be adding 20 homes, which equals to be at least 40 more cars minimum that are going to be coming down onto Watercress or going across Pickerel or Cordgrass over to Foxtail and coming down Foxtail to Watercress and then onto Serenity," she said.

“That’s a lot of traffic for our little subdivision,” Montreuil said.

Wes Brulotte, whose house is across from where a new road is to be built, said this project will disrupt his household at nighttime when headlights from cars on the new road will shine into his kids' bedroom windows. He said he and his family chose this neighborhood because it’s a quiet

cul-de-sac with six homes and not a lot of traffic.

“There's got to be another way,” he said.

The Haycrop Commercial Park Subdivision will turn 88 acres into 22 commercial lots east of Highway 41, north of Prairie Avenue and just west of Fennecus Road.

The only public testimony came from Mark Hughes, who runs the Hughes Farm on the south side of Prairie across from where this subdivision will be built. He was in favor of the project.

"We were in favor of the annexation when the Jacklins wished to annex the property, we were thrilled when Kootenai Classical Academy found a home just north of our property,” he said, adding that he trusts a good job will be done.

"We look forward to it getting developed and we support them," he said.

Hampe said this project makes sense.

“We’ve been waiting for Highway 41 to finish so that we could get some commercial going there, and that’s what’s happening,” she said.

The next steps are the reasoned decisions for all three projects and master development agreements for the subdivisions.