Panhandle Bike Ranch vs. Bonner County: A Timeline

Several million dollars invested in 8+ miles of trails, parking, well, septic, and a welcome center on 170 acres in Sagle. The county had approved the conditional use permit twice.

The judge's ruling was about the county's process, not anything PBR did wrong: Bonner County failed to properly document its findings of fact on why it had approved the recreation facility. The permit was vacated and remanded on that procedural failure alone — right as the park was ready to open, after two prior approvals.

Attorneys asked the county to simply fix the findings of fact — all the judge had actually asked for — but the county refused, saying the commissioners wanted a whole new hearing from scratch. County planning staff floated the idea directly: operating on a donation basis wouldn't require a CUP, as long as no donation or payment was required to ride.

Started operating on a donation basis, directly following the guidance given by Bonner County planning.

The county flagged a word on the website implying donations were required. Fixed immediately and sent evidence back asking the county to confirm the issue was resolved — they never responded, and no further violations followed for 10 months.

The nonprofit path felt right — community feedback from events kept pointing that way, and PBR had essentially been operating like a nonprofit since day one: free to the public at first, then on a donation basis. Formed PBR Inc. as a 501(c)(3), with PGS LLC leasing the land to it, filed Form 1023, and stood up formal governance to match.

Attorneys sent Bonner County a formal letter requesting PBR be recognized as a park under county code, following up on planning staff's own guidance about the donation-based path. BCRC § 12-816 defines a "Park" as "a noncommercial facility designed to serve the recreational needs of the residents of the community" — the definition the letter argued PBR meets.

Applied for an accessory building permit for a welcome center and bathrooms, meant to put to use the public well and septic system the earlier CUP approvals had already required — and that significant time and money had already gone into building.

Alex Feyen responded on behalf of the county, denying park status and classifying PBR as a recreation facility — the county's position being that nonprofit status didn't matter because it still viewed the operation as commercial activity.

Attorneys sent a letter to the Bonner County commissioners asking them to appeal interim planning director Alex Feyen's park designation determination.

Feyen forwarded a response from Deputy Prosecutor Nate Adams: while county code generally allows appeals of planning director decisions to the Board, he argued specific carve-outs make the director's use-table interpretations and zoning classifications final and not appealable.

The county denied the BLP, reasoning that the vacated CUP meant no commercial use — including the welcome center and bathrooms — could be permitted. The catch: the planning department itself had earlier told the engineering firm to classify the structure as commercial for billing purposes, since it fit no other category, then used that same classification to deny the permit.

Givens Pursley appealed the BLP denial, arguing PBR meets the code's definition of a noncommercial "Park," that Idaho case law confirms charging fees doesn't make a nonprofit recreational use commercial, and that a welcome center and restrooms are ordinary accessory structures to a permitted park use.

Only two commissioners, Ron Korn and Brian Domke, were present at the appeal hearing. Both voted to deny the appeal, following the county attorney Nate Adams's guidance.

With the county refusing to allow an appeal, PBR and PGS LLC filed a Petition for Judicial Review (Case No. CV09-26-0166), asking the court to overturn both the October 15 park-designation denial and the refusal to refer it to the Board as arbitrary, capricious, and unsupported by the record. The case was assigned to Judge McCrea.

Kept investing in the property the whole time, based on the county's approval of the donation model: new trails, new trailers, a third shuttle truck, well and septic work, and additional temporary facilities including a check-in building, storage, and bathrooms — right up until the injunction order, with the well and septic work still ongoing.

After no violations since the August 2025 notice, the county posted a stop work order with no violation notices leading up to it.

The county filed to halt operations pending the underlying park-designation case. Givens Pursley and Sandpoint Law step in, and the fight shifts to procedure — judicial notice disputes, a motion to dismiss the county's counterclaim, and a hearing that keeps getting reset.

The county's evidence leaned on a gate and a since-removed "payment required" badge on the booking platform. The hearing went well but ran out of time and continued to the following week.

Felt like a strong showing after over an hour of witness testimony and argument, but the judge had an already-prepared bench decision, granted the county's injunction, and scolded PBR on several points. In her ruling, she also weighed in on the merits of the separate park-designation lawsuit — saying the facts presented "would tend to indicate" the property is more akin to a private club than a park — while stressing that wasn't a final finding and shouldn't be read as predicting who ultimately prevails. She directed both sides' attorneys to submit draft injunction language.

Both sides submitted competing proposed injunction orders — the county's sweeping and vague, PBR's narrower and tied to specific, enumerated activities.

Rather than adopt either side's proposed language, the judge circulated an unsigned draft with a "close personal relationship" carve-out for personal, non-commercial use — a term with no defined meaning in Idaho statute or county code. PBR's side views it as still too narrow. With no agreement reached, the court set a presentment hearing for July 31 to resolve the disputed language. Where the story stands today.