The Rathdrum City Council denied the rezoning of the 127-acre Arestad property bordered by Boekel and Meyer roads in a 3-1 vote Wednesday night following a contentious public hearing that lasted several hours.

Homebuilder Hayden Homes had requested the parcel of land be rezoned from industrial to mixed residential, proposing construction of nearly 500 homes over six to eight years.

The request was denied on the grounds that the project would not satisfy the city’s first criteria for establishing a mixed-residential zoning district, which states that “traffic (should) not have a detrimental effect on the carrying capacity of collector and arterial streets.”

Councilor Larry Sanders gave the only dissenting vote and called for tabling the matter until the council’s June 11 meeting.

“I’d like to go ahead and do this, but there’s a lot of new information coming out tonight,” Sanders said.

The council had initially approved the rezoning request in April but had not sent out public hearing notices to residents beforehand, as required by Idaho law, so the original vote was voided.

“We take responsibility,” said city planner James Agidius. “It is my staff that failed to do that.”

Several dozen people attended Wednesday night’s hearing. Almost 30 people spoke in opposition to the proposed rezone.

Many residents were concerned with the impact another subdivision would have on schools.

“Unfortunately, this community rejected the levy for a new high school several years back, so we need to live in that reality,” Shannon Dow said.

Others argued that development is already affecting the aquifer and the city water supply.

“We are already receiving notices on the days we’re allowed to water our lawn,” said Kimberly Clemmons. “It is already a problem."

Councilor John Hodgkins, who made the motion to deny Hayden Homes’ request, said that public feedback reflects the need for Rathdrum’s city code, comprehensive plan and future land use map to be updated.

“We need to make some adjustments,” Hodgkins said. 

Mayor Mike Hill made similar comments earlier in the hearing.

“I don’t think we’ve done a good job on what we mean by ‘low density housing,’” he said.