Opinion ID: 874092
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: If a land use application is submitted and proper access to the land is disputed, the decision-maker should make the application's approval expressly contingent upon judicial resolution of the access issue.

Text: The parties dispute whether a road and utility easement for ingress and egress is sufficient in scope to permit public access to the proposed subdivision. [4] The Board correctly determined that it lacks jurisdiction to determine the easement's nature and scope, as questions of property ownership must be resolved by a district court. Rural Kootenai Org., Inc. v. Bd. of Comm'rs, 133 Idaho 833, 842, 993 P.2d 596, 605 (1999). Since article V, § B(1) of the Subdivision Ordinance requires that subdivisions with five or more lots have access to a public street or road, the Board may not approve the subdivision application until such access is certain. Thus, the Board may condition approval of the subdivision application upon a district court's entry of declaratory or final judgment that the easement provides the subdivision with the necessary access to a public road. See McFadden v. Sein, 139 Idaho 921, 923, 88 P.3d 740, 742 (2004) (affirming district court's judgment as to easement's scope after county commissioners made approval of conditional use permit expressly contingent upon judicial resolution of scope of the easement).