Kevin wrote:

The decision to approve or deny a private runway (in Idaho) is based
on the planning and zoning committee. This is amazing to me that a
group of regular folks who know nothing of what it takes for an
airplane to take off or land AND ALSO, the planning and zoning
committee will not accept any responsibility or liability if their
decision was wrong and planes crash.

It sounds as if the Planning commission is strictly ruling on the
principle of whether they want a runway in their community or not, and
are not ruling on the safety aspects. They are leaving the safety
aspects up to the person designing the runway. Seems perfectly
reasonable.