County should uphold ordinances

My name is Jimmy Ball. I have been a resident of Boundary County since the spring 2002. Shortly after moving into town, I realized I needed to find an affordable place to live since my job was not high paying.

That’s when I started investing in housing and since then, my commitment is to create affordable housing for people working local jobs just like me. This is not a get-rich-quick kind of business; on the contrary, we have accumulated quite a bit of debt providing this service.

It is my opinion that people should not be punished for disorganization on the county’s part. Over the past seven months the county has given me permission to do two projects. One, a guest house on five acres, which they knew was going to be rented until it paid for itself. The other, which is far more significant, is a for house addition to land in Paradise Valley, for which I was given four separate permits that were signed this January.

On the county’s first error, they let me complete the guest house. After complaints from some of the neighbors, they found me in violation of the ordinance and charged me as a criminal. They spent tax dollars investigating using law enforcement and county prosecutors, while I had to pay $200 per hour to my lawyer. When we went to court, the judge took one look at the case and threw it out. The county was not willing to back up its interpretation of the ordinance and decided the neighbors’ complaints are more important than my family, so they “threw me under the bus,” called me a criminal and spent tax money to take me to court for their mistake.

On the second issue, the county granted me four permits for housing but after six months and one home being sited on property, the complaints from neighbors started pouring in, saying they didn’t want any further development in their neighborhood and what do you know, the county finds another error.

They respond with an, “Oops, I’m sorry, you lose over $300,000.” I can’t understand what they think I’m going to do — lose my house, go bankrupt or just not feed my family? To me, $300,000 translates to 30 years of hard work and more than $1,000 a month in interest and all they offer is an “Oops, I’m sorry.”

So my point is to the county, “take care of people, nobody’s name is developer.” In the world there is right and wrong and taking someone’s permit after the job is done is not right.

Jimmy Ball

Bonners Ferry