The state Department of Lands will auction off 30 state-owned cabin sites at Payette Lake this Friday in Boise, 25 of them with cabins already on them owned by people who’ve been leasing the lots, and five without. If someone other than the current lessee has the highest bid, the buyer would have to pay the cabin owner the appraised value for the improvements.

This is the latest move in the state’s plan to get out of the business of renting lake cabin sites at Payette and Priest Lakes, with the cabin owners building and owning their cabins, but paying rent to the state for the land. That’s led to multiple lawsuits and fights over the years about whether the state was meeting constitutional requirements for getting adequate returns, as the sites are owned by the state endowment that largely benefits public schools.

In most of the auctions held so far at both lakes, most of the lots have sold for the appraised value – which is the minimum bid – to the current lessees. But some have drawn competition and a few longtime cabin-owners have been outbid.

Friday’s auction will take place at 1 p.m. at the Stueckle Sky Center in Boise. There’s more info here about the properties that will be up for auction and how it all works.