SANDPOINT — From just over 12 square miles to nothing, that’s the change that could be coming to Sandpoint’s area of impact.

The city’s Planning and Zoning commission voted unanimously to recommend the elimination of the AOI, moving the motion to the City Council for final adoption. An AOI is land claimed by a city outside of their limits, which the city could annex, plan to zone, get notified about new developments and more. 

Sandpoint city staff are pushing for this decision to bring their AOI up to Idaho Code, which changed the rules around AOIs in 2024. 

The change to state code specified that AOIs could not extend more than two and half square miles outside of the city’s limits and must be planned to be annexed by the city in the next five years. 

“The other key piece of language in the new state law was that AOIs could only include areas that are highly or very likely to be annexed within five years,” Sandpoint Planning and Community Development Director Jason Welker said. “That proved to be, what I would describe as the death sentence of our AOI.” 

If Sandpoint’s AOI is eliminated, it could complicate future annexation procedures. However, the city is allowed to reevaluate its AOI at any point to potentially accommodate annexation or expansion. 

Commissioner Grant Simmons expressed some potential concern over the elimination of the city’s AOI. He emphasized the need to reevaluate the AOI every five years, as already required by Idaho Code.  

In early 2025, the city came up with a plan that revised its AOI down significantly. However, after the plan was rejected by Bonner County commissioners, who cited the planned annexing statute as the reason for denial, the city decided to opt for complete elimination of the AOI instead. 

Another driving factor for the city’s decision was the fact that in the county, "almost all” annexation is driven by the property owner, not the city, Welker said. If property owners want to be annexed by Sandpoint, that remains a possibility.  

An overwhelming number of letters were sent to the commission by property owners, in the city’s AOI, saying they wanted out of Sandpoint’s AOI. 

“This is what the county commissioners desire for us to do, I have no doubt that they’ll accept this recommendation from this commission and City Council,” Welker said. “We received quite a lot of letters, up until last week, of residents from our AOI, who are big fans of not being withing the AOI for the city of Sandpoint.” 

The future of the city’s AOI now moves to the City Council, who will vote on adoption of elimination at a future meeting.