Huckleberries Online

Hagadone Resubmits Marina Plans

Posted by DFO

March 4, 2009 8:06 a.m. • 5 comments

Item: Marina back on drawing board: Hagadone submits plans for Blackwell Island/Alecia Warren, CDA Press

More Info: After years of research and consulting, Hagadone Hospitality has set the wheels in motion once again to excavate and replace the Blackwell Island Marina. “We spent well into the six figures — many six figures,” said John Barlow, president of Hagadone Real Estate Holding, of the past three years rethinking the project. “Many developers might have given up, but we know this will be Coeur d’Alene’s finest marina.” Armed with an entirely new set of environmental standards, Hagadone Hospitality resubmitted a joint permit application to the state Department of Lands and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Monday.

Question: Do you have reservations re: Duane Hagadone’s plans to construct a top-flight marina and boat sales operation on Blackwell Island?

Five comments on this post so far. Add yours!

Me on March 04 at 10:15 a.m.
No - we hang out on the CDA River. More our type of ‘folk’. We don’t need any stinkin Marina!
Escapee on March 04 at 11:54 p.m.
Cda’s finest resort that blue-collar-folk won’t be able to afford, that is. I guess no one can accuse Mr. H of lacking tenacity.
leisure on March 05 at 1:04 p.m.
At least we’re not alone in how he treats his neighbors…Duane has a long history of giving inches while taking miles and changing agreements after misleading government officials as to his real plans. How much more of him can any community stand? Just ask his neighbors in Palm Desert:

Huckleberries 10/27/06

Short story on the meeting last night:

Duane agreed to a legally binding relationship with the city of Palm Desert: in exchange for the Council approving a permit for his sport court, Duane will work with a committee of two Council members to tackle the “mitigating circumstances” (they are listed in the Desert Sun article you linked to); if satisfactory solutions are not reached on the mitigating circumstances, then Duane will rip out the sport court.

The Council vote was 3 to 1 in favor and so Duane got his permit.

The long story isn’t any more interesting. I did sit right behind Duane and his cadre of attorneys. He spoke respectfully to the Palm Desert City Council and seemed unruffled when each Council member said they were misled on this project and so were distrustful of him. Lots of public testimony from people who have lived here for 50 years and believe that their view is spoiled. Lots of people wondering how this happened and imploring the Council to not let it happen again.

I said to a member of our city Planning Commission, during an intermission, that I was surprised that no one was standing up to say, The dots don’t connect. Hagadone asked for a permit, for example, for a pool that was to be 43 feet long and now the pool is built and it’s 180 feet long. So which is it: can the Council not read English or did the applicant lie? This Planning Commissioner said, “The person (in the Palm Desert Building Department) who signed the permit didn’t read the measurements, which were changed.”

So who is to blame for that? The City of Palm Desert for hiring such a boob or Duane for getting away with what can only be a known deception?

In the end, Fitzgerald was right: The rich aren’t like you and me.

Duane was proud that he’d been up since 4:30 in the morning to fly from Idaho to the desert to meet with the disgruntled homeowners who live below his house.

Many times I’ve gotten up at 4:30 a.m. to catch a flight — always commercial, often stuck in the middle seat in Coach.

Duane, I think, is simply one of those poor people who have been so rich so long that they’ve forgotten what it’s like to not be.

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About this blog

D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.