The Cascade County planning board reviewed two subdivisions during their June 20 meeting.

One was a single-lot preliminary plat review to remove an agricultural exemption under the county zoning regulations.

The property, at 31st Avenue South and 6th Street South, has a home and barn on the property.

Some area property owners objected to lifting the agricultural exemption on the residential lot because they didn’t want livestock or chickens in the area.

The property falls under private homeowner association covenants and county staff said the board’s action didn’t change any of those rules.

Carey Ann Haight, deputy county attorney, said she was concerned by the board taking any interest in the private association covenant discussion since those are private arrangements that the county doesn’t enforce or have any jurisdiction over.

She said that any neighborhood concerns about pets and livestock were “really beyond the scope of this board’s responsibility.”

Rob Skawinksi, planning board member, moved to approve the preliminary plat with a condition to maintain the existing private covenants.

Haight said, “it’s not appropriate for this board to step into private covenants and enforcement. The county has no business in doing that.”

She said it’s “wholly inappropriate for the county to be doing that,” in terms of imposing a condition related to private covenants.

Skawinski asked how the board could approve the plat and lifting the county’s agricultural exemption without conflicting with the private covenants.

Haight reinterated that the county’s action did not affect the private covenants and any neighborhood issues needed to be addressed through that group or civil court.

Charity Yonker, county planning director, said that the county looked at ensuring property uses comply with subdivision regulations and if landowners want more restrictive rules on a property, it’s a private matter through civil court.

The existing private covenants run with the land and it takes civil legal action to change those restrictions, Yonker said.

Skwanski withdrew his motion and asked staff if the board had an obligation to prevent conflicting with private covenants.

“No, we don’t. We have no authority, no jurisdiction, we have no place in a discussion or dispute or interpretation of those private covenants,” Haight said.

One area landowner asked if they had a say in lifting agricultural covenants.

Richard Liebert, planning board member, said that’s what they were doing now.

Yonker said the minor subdivision plat review isn’t subject to public comment under state law.

Ronda Wiggers told the board that they put a minor subdivision through public review and she objected to that on behalf of the local homebuilders association and they were concerned about that precedent.

The board approved the plat without any additional conditions related to private covenants.

The plat will next go to the County Commission for final review.

The planning board also reviewed a variance application for a phase of the River Bend Estates subdivision to remove the 100-foot open space buffer requirement between any structures and prime agriculture. That condition had been included in the December 2022 of the preliminary plat approval for 29.67-acres into 12 residential lots and one 57.906-acre lot, which is adjacent to prime agricultural lands that are not currently in production, according to the staff report.

The board approved the variance request that will next go to commissioners for final review.