It was a complicated issue from the beginning.

Kevin McNally, representing his mother and five brothers and sisters, who comprise McNally Limited Partnership, had been taking rock off his 56-acre parcel at the end of District 2 Road since 1998, when a mudslide took out much of U.S. 95, District 2 Road and the Union Pacific Rail line. As his was the only source of rock available on that side of the slide, and since he had been working for many years to improve the main farming and logging road accessing the partnership's holding, which includes a 200+ acre parcel to the east, he allowed the removal of over 35,000 cubic yards of shot rock and cobble to rebuild the railroad and District 2 Road.

In the years since, he continued work on the road in a piecemeal fashion, a little here, a little there, giving most of the rock away and selling some of it here and there when a neighbor came in with a truck and a way to load it. In 2009, he was informed by the Idaho Department of Lands that even though he was building a road, to sell the rock he had to get a surface mining permit and file a reclamation plan, which he did, getting approval for the "River Road Project," confined to 2 1/2 acres. In 2010, after receiving a complaint from another pit operator who felt the competition was unfair, the county informed him he needed a county special use permit to operate a commercial pit.

Because he had no intention of "creating a steady job for myself," he instead decided just to give away the rock he needed to widen the 10-foot wide road, one so narrow and close the to the river, he said, that if you pulled over in places, with the river on one side and a cliff on the other, you couldn't open the door and get out.

Then he was approached by representatives of the Kootenai Tribe, working on a major restoration project on the Kootenai River, a good part of that project to take place on McNally land. He readily agreed to give them access through his property, the only access to the north shore of the river along the braided reach, where work is set to begin in August.

The problem was, they needed a 20-foot road, and sent in engineers to see what it would take to build it. Moving a lot of rock, they concluded, and in a hurry. They need the road accessible to their equipment by August, when the project is set to begin.

Once the river restoration project is underway, McNally will lose the easy access to the river enjoyed since his dad bought the land in 1963, though he will have a better road. He'll have to put up fences for his cattle, and drill two wells to provide them water. What better way to offset that cost, he thought, than to sell some of the rock the Tribe might need for the Kootenai River Restoratioin Project? He made application last fall for a special use permit to operate a gravel pit.

Then came a Supreme Court decision, based on a gravel pit approved a few years ago on the Farm to Market Road near Porthill. The county special use provision, which allowed consideration of "any use not specified as a use by right, permitted use or conditional use," as being in violation of the Idaho Land Use Planning Act as the county didn't tell people what they couldn't do, and it didn't conditionally allow a gravel pit.

While trying to figure out what to do about that, the application was put on hold at McNally's request and no processing was done, and no one thought to check the zoning of the 56-acre parcel. In 1988, McNally well knew, he'd applied to have a portion of the family's land rezoned ... that rezone application went through and allowed the development of the French Point Subdivision, which extends down to the north boundary of the Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way. The south boundary of the UP line is now the north boundary of the 56-acre McNally family property.

Recognizing that there was a need for gravel in the county and that it could be awhile before the new ordinance being developed would be adopted, county commissioners in January amended the esixting zoning ordinance to list gravel pits as a conditional use in the agriculture/forestry zone district, and the way seemed paved for finally beginning to process the McNally application. Then came another twist.

The 56 acre parcel on which the road building project from which the rock was to be sold, hence the "gravel pit," was zoned, like the French Point subdivision, rural residential. He could technically put 56 houses on the property, even though the property runs pretty much straight up and down, but not a gravel pit.

So he had to apply for a zone map amendment as well, even though the record showed clearly that it was a county mistake, undiscovered for 23 years. The deadline to file an appeal is 20 days. Somehow, when the description in his application was transferred to the zoning map, the line was drawn along the north edge of District 2 Road and then down to the river instead of along the north boundary of the railroad, a fair distance to the north. All these years, McNally had been running cattle, logging and making hay on "prime" residential real estate, now overlooked by many beautiful homes on what actually is prime real estate along the Kootenai Rim.

Building a private road on private land in Boundary County is what is referred to as a "use by right," meaning no county permit is required. There is nothing in the ordinance that prevents a person from blasting rock to cut a road, or to move that rock to clear the road.

Because of the Kootenai River restoration project and the permission McNally gave to allow access through his property, the road was going in, regardless of McNally's application, much to the delight of McNally and people who lease his land, who will have a much easier job getting to and from the work they need to do on the 200 acre parcel to the east, and to Joleene Ries, Spokane, and members of her family, who've owned a nice parcel of land east of that 200 acre parcel, who for 12 years have had to navigate a three-mile "goat trail" to reach their property each spring when they come to stay for the summer.

The Boundary County Zoning and Subdivision Ordinance, until early this year, didn't make mention of gravel pits or quarries, as the special use provision allowed consideration of anything a property owner might propose, in any zone district, subject to not one but at least two public hearings, each requiring the zoning administrator to notify folks what was going on by publishing a legal notice in the Bonners Ferry Herald and by sending all surrounding property owners within 300 feet of property lines a letter giving a general idea of what their neighbor wanted to do and where they could go or who they could call to get the details.

But even with the amendment, there was no provision for "I'm improving a road and I need to sell the rock."

The ordinance calls that a gravel pit. And when people hear those two words, especially people who've worked their lives to build a home in a quiet place with beautiful views, they tend to get concerned, and it showed in the volume of letters received and number of people who showed up at Thursday's public hearing.

What was somewhat unexpected was that the letters received, with the exception of one submitted by the applicant himself attempting to explain his intent, were unanimously and vehemently opposed, while those who attended the hearing and got up to speak were about equally balanced between those who were in favor of the proposal and those who were opposed. And by the end of a nearly five hour public hearing, even some of those who'd written vehement letters against recognized the logic of the proposal and withdrew their objections.

"I was against this proposal when I came to this hearing," one French Point Drive resident said, "but now that I understand what's going on, I withdraw my objection. If this isn't going to be a gravel pit, I have no problem with the proposal."

Some remained opposed, but questioned the process.

"I have no opposition to what Mr. McNally says he wants to do," another French Point Drive resident said, "but how do we know the limits?"

"Once he has the right to put a gravel pit in," said another, "we'll never have the ability to stop it."

Members of the planning and zoning commission determined otherwise, setting terms and conditions that, if violated, could result in the revocation of the permit as well as legal prosecution that could lead to as much as six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

"If you choose to approve this application and don't set terms and conditions," zoning administrator Mike Weland advised, "their concerns are correct, there is nothing in this application to limit what the applicant can do. If you choose to approve this permit, I strongly suggest that you do establish clear and definable conditions. Once approved, the conditional use permit becomes the controlling document on uses allowed on this piece of land, and violation of the terms and conditions on this permit is a violation of the Boundary County Zoning and Subdivision ordinance, and subject to enforcement."

After much consideration and discussion, the P&Z commission approved the application with the conditions that there be no crushing, no blasting after work on the road right of way is complete. The pit can only operate from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and excavation is limited in scope and area to that allowed by the Idaho Department of Lands surface mining permit for the River Road Project, an area of about 2 1/2 acres. Excavation is limited as well to the duration of the Kootenai River Restoration project plus one year, and following the end of the allowed excavation period, sale and removal of stockpiled material is limited to 10,000 cubic yards until that material is gone.

In addition, copies of the IDL permit and reclamation plan are to be provided the administrator for inclusion as part of the public record for this application, to be made available for review by anyone who has a concern.

To take effect, the zone map amendment portion of the application must be approved by county commissioners following another public hearing; the date of that hearing has yet to be scheduled.