POST FALLS — About 30 citizens turned out to the City Council meeting Tuesday night, many in support of Jinny and Lloyd Wayne Dorsey, who own property on a Kootenai County island, but hit a snag when it came to building a home where their doublewide once stood on 12th Avenue.  

“It’s not too often we get a crowd like this,” Mayor Ron Jacobson said. “Thank you for taking the time to show up and show your support.”   

Because a new structure constitutes a development, the couple has been forced to pause their home aspirations while the matter of whether they need to annex into Post Falls to potentially connect to the city's sewer system is resolved. Because of the area of impact as it currently stands, Kootenai County requires new developments to go through the city in their area of impact, and the 12th Avenue property sits on an island in the Post Falls area of impact. 

Jinny and Lloyd Wayne Dorsey are currently living in an RV while they figure out what to do to make their future home more accessible as they get older. Lloyd voiced his frustrations with starting the process with county permits and then being told they need to be annexed into Post Falls and create a new sewer hookup even though their old connection is still viable.  

“What started this was a doublewide: three bedrooms, two bath trailer, two porches, five steps up and down,” Lloyd said. “We're not getting any younger and we’re trying to look at places we can help ourselves in the future. We decided the best thing we can do is build a house.” 

Rob Dorsey, son to Lloyd and Jinny Dorsey, said that his parents don’t want to annex into Post Falls and don’t want to pay for a second working sewer hookup, all they want is to build a home that better fits their needs. 

Rob is confused by the language requiring them to adhere to annexation when he sees the reason why a new development would trigger annexation being the creation of a subdivision, which the family does not desire.  

“I don’t believe this was designed to do this,” Rob said of the language pushing his parents into annexation into Post Falls. 

City Councilor Joe Malloy wondered if others would face this same issue if a home on a county island burned down and they wanted to rebuild.   

Prior to the meeting, the family placed a sign saying, “Stop Coercive Annexations” on the property and created a Facebook group called “DO BETTER POST FALLS.” Although the group was only created Aug. 2, it had garnered 176 members by meeting time Aug. 5. 

Jacobson confirmed that the Dorseys and city officials have been in talks to resolve the matter, but details are still being ironed out.  

City Counsel Field Herrington said further meetings are needed and there would need to be some sort of agreement in place to make sure city, county and landowners are all covered. 

“They’re not going to be forced to annex, they’re not going to be forced to hook up with the sewers,” Jacobson said.  

Deputy City Administrator Warren Wilson pointed out that the reason the Dorseys fell into this issue was because the county requires the islands in the area of impact in Post Falls to comply with city standards and be annexed.  

“This is their standard not our standard,” Wilson said. 

City Councilor Nathan Ziegler said the problem lay with the definition of development in the wording of the ordinance.    

“I think it’s just a very ambitious definition of what development means,” Ziegler said. 

City Councilors Samantha Steigleder and Randy Westlund asked for a future workshop to better understand county regulations in place and how they apply to Post Falls in cases like the one the Dorseys are experiencing.

Jinny and Lloyd Wayne Dorsey's property sits on Kootenai County land and they have been living in their RV after they tore down their doublewide home to try and build a home with handicapped accessibility on the lot. After some permits had been issued, they ran into a roadblock over having to potentially annex into Post Falls and connect to the Post Falls sewer system because of where their property falls in a county island.