Development Plan Needs A Hearing Spinoff Of Larger Cougar Bay Project Was Denied A Permit

Critics of development near Cougar Bay feel they’ve scored a minor victory.

Their main concern is a 92-home, 118-acre subdivision McCormack Properties is planning above Lake Coeur d’Alene. But the company also planned to build four houses on 40 acres nearby.

Now, Mike McCormack will be able to build only one house on the smaller parcel unless he goes through a public hearing process.

“On the one hand it’s ‘Hallelujah’ and on the other it’s ‘Oh crumb,”’ said resident Virginia Johnson, who lives nearby. “He’s stopped for now, but my fear is he’ll go through it (the subdivision process) and they’ll let him do it anyway.”

Last summer, McCormack Properties constructed a quarter-mile road and put in utility lines as part of the 40-acre project along U.S. Highway 95 south of Coeur d’Alene.

Three weeks ago, company representatives applied for a building permit for land along the new road. Planners determined only one home site was available, unless McCormack returned to the subdivision process.

Planners say they warned the company in September 1994 that this would likely happen.

County rules allow developers a one-time land split into four tracts to avoid going through the timeconsuming subdivision process. McCormack Properties took that option in 1992, dividing a 140-acre parcel into four parts.

Three of the parcels were next to the lake; the fourth, 40-acre parcel was on the other side of the highway.

When residents objected to building homes next to the lake, McCormack gave the waterfront parcels to the Nature Conservancy for a wildlife refuge. In return, a group of residents agreed to drop opposition to McCormack’s much larger hillside project.

Attempts to contact developer Brett Terrell were unsuccessful Thursday.

McCormack’s critics have mixed emotions about their chance to comment on the smaller development.

Attorney Marc McGregor, who represents residents embroiled in a lawsuit over the larger bay development, said McCormack should have gone through the hearing process from the start.