Access To Water Must Be Preserved
Hauser Lake property owner Garth Everett has learned a hard lesson during the last three years: The locals don’t like newcomers shutting off historical access to North Idaho’s waterways.
Those who try generally meet stiff resistance.
Unless they can produce clear title to such property, landowners deserve to be challenged. Every square foot of public access along North Idaho’s waterfront is precious and worth fighting for. There’s so little of it.
The Idaho Land Board wisely heeded conservationists and fishermen Tuesday and rejected a proposed staff compromise with Everett that would have divided a sliver of shoreline.
Opponents complained that the state would be giving up too much frontage. Said conservationist Art Manley: “I’d rather see you fight to protect the public interest. If we should lose, the worst we could do is buy it.”
Everett should be compensated for any shoreline he can prove is his. But he doesn’t deserve even one linear foot that isn’t.
Everett started this fight three summers ago when he tried to fence locals away from a popular fishing spot, known as “The Point.” Now, he should learn to coexist with the fishermen.
If he wants to press his property claims, Everett is facing an arduous, expensive court battle against the state - as well as continued local scorn. A similar dispute between the Idaho Department of Lands and Idaho Forest Industries, involving the Dike Road on Hayden Lake, has been tied up in court for a decade.
Lake Coeur d’Alene’s north shore offers examples of the right and wrong ways for waterfront owners to react to historical access to their property.
Along East Lakeshore Drive, owners grant access gladly, requesting only that users keep their property tidy. Property holders along West Lakeshore Drive, however, lay a strong claim to Sanders Beach. Some grudgingly grant access with the threat that the privilege can be taken away at any time. Occasionally, one of them will try to fence off the beach and encounters community protest.
Several years ago, resort owner Duane Hagadone clashed with residents after he considered closing the eastern end of Sanders Beach as part of his Coeur d’Alene Resort golf course development. Ultimately, he reconsidered - after crafty Gov. Cecil Andrus, acting for the state Land Board, had made Sanders Beach access a condition of the floating-green lease.
As long as the new Land Board shows the same sensitivity to North Idaho’s public-access rhubarbs, the public will be well-served.
, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria/For the editorial board