Panhandle Door Inc. started 25 years ago as a small mom-and-pop cabinet business in Naples, Idaho, about 6 miles south of Bonners Ferry in Boundary County.
Residents nearby initially supported the small business adjacent to their homes, but after the operation was sold in 2018, they say it rapidly expanded to dozens of employees working longer hours. They wondered if the growth was approved by the county and started raising concerns about industrial noise, chemical smells and potential violations of the permit that allows the industrial business near their homes.
Residents filed multiple complaints with Boundary County officials and state agencies, alleging the business was violating limits on its hours of operation, off-gassing volatile organic compounds from industrial paints and varnishes, and improperly using an access road to ship products in and out. After receiving complaints, the business applied to update its permit with Boundary County earlier this year to become compliant and expand even more.
The county's Planning and Zoning Commission approved the requested permit updates in July, but residents appealed that decision, leading to a well-attended appeal hearing before the county commissioners earlier this month. The three commissioners could issue a decision on the appeal as soon as next month.
GROWING BUSINESS
Joel Martin started Panhandle Kitchen & Doors in 1999 as a small cabinet manufacturing operation. In October 2005, the Boundary County commissioners approved a conditional use permit for the business to operate at its current location on Pot Hole Road, which is zoned as agricultural/forestry land.
When zoning restricts activities in an area, such as industrial manufacturing, local governments can agree to a conditional use permit to allow those activities with restrictions. In this case, Panhandle's permit allowed manufacturing while limiting the scale of operation. The permit restricted operational business hours to 6 am to 2:30 pm and allowed the company to employ eight people, make up to eight commercial vehicle trips per day in vehicles with trailers used for hauling, and operate a facility of up to 5,200 square feet.
In 2018, Nelson Mast, a resident of Boundary County since 1994, purchased the business, which became Panhandle Door Inc., and started scaling up the operation.
When he purchased the business, Mast says he was made aware of the conditional use permit while speaking with John Moss of the county's Planning and Zoning Commission. But Mast says he didn't know about the restrictions it placed on operations.
"He informed me that we had a conditional use permit that allowed what we were doing, but never mentioned that there were any kind of conditions," Mast says.
Under the new ownership, neighbors surrounding the manufacturing business say they noticed a significant increase in operating hours, going past midnight. Soon, about 200 vehicle trips per day were made on the narrow Pot Hole Road during permitted and unpermitted business hours.
According to a COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program application approved in April 2020, Panhandle Door Inc. was employing 57 workers at that time.
David Jim Dewberry moved to a neighboring property in 2019 and began working for Panhandle Door in the summer of 2021 in shipping and receiving. Internally, he says he started to voice concerns two years ago about the need for a downdraft table — which has a ventilation system to draw dust, smoke and fumes away from the operator — to minimize harm to a coworker.
"I was trying to protect my guys," Dewberry says, "and they wouldn't spring for the cost of a downdraft table."
As a neighbor, Dewberry also started raising concerns about the nighttime noise, an unpermitted septic system on-site during the winter months early this year, and increased operations.
Kate Hoyer, communications manager with the Panhandle Health District, says via email that the health district responded to a complaint regarding an unpermitted septic system at Panhandle Door. Hoyer says the district received a fast response from the owner, and its staff members are working to ensure compliance.
"The owner of Panhandle Door reached out to us immediately and decommissioned the system before it was put into use," Hoyer says. "The owner proceeded to submit an application for a new septic system and paid to have the system designed."
Mast says he's operating within the confines of the county's ordinances and was approved to modify his permit for the expanded operations. He says the neighbors are complaining because they chose to live in an area that allows businesses, but they don't want them in their backyards.
"At the heart of all of this is really a dispute about not having something in my backyard there," Mast says. "There are about 70 employees whose jobs depend on Panhandle, and I think there's a lot of support, and I think this county needs small businesses like Panhandle."
However, Dewberry, who has attempted to get Mast to address the issues, says Mast is not working with him in good faith anymore. He says his time at the facility taught him the business would rather keep expanding and ignore neighbors' concerns.
"He's clearly just buying time until he can force this on me and my neighbors," Dewberry says. "He's not actually going to fix this."
CHANGING PERMIT
Panhandle Door requested an update to its conditional use permit on March 28 after receiving a zoning violation notice for unpermitted expansion. Landowners within 300 feet of the business were notified of a hearing for the modifications. The initial hearing was held on July 25, when the county's Planning and Zoning Commission approved the modification of the permit.
The modified permit allowed the cabinet manufacturing facility's growth to be considered in compliance. The facility was allowed to exceed 8,000 square feet on a 17.2-acre parcel; the operational hours were extended by nearly eight hours; and the business can now employ up to 85 people.
Several neighbors who live next to the business appealed the permit modifications. Don Jordan and Kathleen Konek filed an appeal on Aug. 5, and Kelli Martin, Jeffery Steinborn, and Dewberry filed an appeal on Aug. 20.
The appeals prompted an Oct. 9 hearing, where the Boundary County commissioners heard from concerned residents and the company to determine whether they should rescind the permit modifications.
About 60 people gathered in the Bonners Ferry High School auditorium for the appeal hearing.
Many employees of the cabinet company spoke at the hearing, stating that the owner is a good employer who cares for their well-being and addresses safety concerns.
"We are very concerned about the safety of all the employees there, so much so that we spend time each morning intentionally gathering all 70 to 80 employees into one room every morning and discussing many things, including safety improvements and things that need to be addressed," Panhandle Door's vice president of operations, Aaron Miller, said during the hearing's public comment period.
Tess Vogel of Ruen-Yeager & Associates, a construction engineering & inspection company contracted by the county's Planning & Zoning Commission, explained at the hearing that the Idaho Transportation Department is concerned about the shared use of Pot Hole Road, which provides access to the business from U.S. Route 2.
The concern is that Pot Hole Road is a private drive shared by residents and the business, with a steady stream of 200 vehicle trips per day, though it was never permitted to be a commercial road.
However, at the hearing it was announced that the state agreed the company could develop a new road from its property to access the highway for commercial use, under the Transportation Department's supervision.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
Daniel McCracken, the Coeur d'Alene regional administrator for the state Department of Environmental Quality, tells the Inlander via email that DEQ doesn't typically conduct testing at facilities like Panhandle Door unless it's required in their permit. Panhandle's permit doesn't require that testing.
McCracken says the company's basic permit requirements are more focused on recordkeeping to document how much paint or coating product is used and the proper disposal of any waste materials.
DEQ issued warning letters to Panhandle Door beginning in October 2023 for seven violations related to failure to count monthly hazardous waste generations, comply with satellite accumulation area label requirements, preparedness and prevention arrangements, procedures, and equipment requirements. These hazardous waste requirements or Resource Conservation and Recovery Act violations were corrected and resolved in February.
DEQ conducted an inspection in July 2024 related to a separate air quality permit for the facility and identified 15 violations.
"DEQ has pending enforcement actions related to those violations, so I cannot provide any public comment regarding the specifics of those violations until our investigation and enforcement activities are concluded," McCracken writes to the Inlander.
Kelli Martin's property is adjacent to the facility. At the appeal hearing, she stated that she doesn't want people to lose their jobs, but she is concerned that the facility is off-gassing volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. Her residence is so close that she can smell the paints and varnishes.
"I have a monitor inside the house where my parents were in the bedroom, and it won't stop going off," Martin told the commissioners, due to "those VOCs and a bunch of different chemicals that could be in the air."
At the end of the 2.5-hour meeting, the commissioners stated that they weren't ready to make a decision and needed additional information. They moved to continue the matter to Nov. 6 to give time for air quality testing to be done on the property.
Martin argues that if noncompliance issues at the business had been addressed years ago, things wouldn't be as bad now.
The neighbors around Panhandle Door Inc. are unsatisfied with the commissioners' response at the hearing and are looking to potentially take civil action. Martin says she doesn't think the commissioners will vote in the neighbors' best interests.
"I'm already lawyered up, and it's just because I knew how this would turn out," Martin says. "This is to help other people in the county as well."
The meeting scheduled for Nov. 6 was later canceled due to a conflict with venue access. A new date is still pending, as are the details about who will conduct and pay for the air quality testing. ♦
