Cougar Bay Project Ok’d Building To Begin Despite Opponents’ Pending Appeals

McCormack Properties of Idaho will start construction this winter on its $2.2 million 92-home subdivision overlooking Cougar Bay.

Kootenai County commissioners gave the controversial project the final go-ahead Friday.

The move comes after three years of lawsuits, public hearings, land ownership squabbles and a demand by developers that critics clam up in exchange for donation of a wildlife sanctuary.

“This project is as environmentally sensitive as any the county’s seen,” said project coordinator Peter Forsch.

County approval actually will complicate - rather than end - a hard-fought legal war.

Project opponents have three appeals pending. Meanwhile, Forsch will be building roads and sewer and water systems to prepare half-acre home sites that eventually will sell for $200,000 or more.

If court decisions go against the developer, it’s unclear what will become of the millions of dollars in improvements.

“You always worry about that,” Forsch said.

Opponent Wes Hanson argued the developer will start construction quickly because a court would be less likely to rule against a subdivision where millions have already been spent on improvements.

In Kootenai County, Cougar Bay has represented a development war like no other.

“This is the hardest project I’ve ever had to work on,” said project engineer Jim Coleman.

In 1993, rural residents were outraged when Hawaiian developer Mike McCormack proposed building six houses in the marshy area along Cougar Bay. The area is home to waterfowl, cougars and bears.

Residents formed the Friends of Cougar Bay and argued against the project in public meetings and with signature drives. They raised community ire, swayed Democratic County Commissioner Mike Anderson, and drew Republican Commissioner Kent Helmer’s attention.

McCormack made a deal.

He would sell 100 water-logged acres to the Nature Conservancy for half their $1 million value and put the development on 118 acres overlooking the bay. In return, the Friends group would not criticize the project publicly.

Controversy continued. The state claimed all but 11 acres of the marsh were above Lake Coeur d’Alene’s high-water mark and already state property. McCormack could not sell what he did not own, the state argued.

The Nature Conservancy, meanwhile, said the 11 acres of dry land alone was worth $1 million, and was happy with the transaction.

A handful of Friends members, however said they’d been cheated. They reorganized under a new name - Rural Kootenai Organization.

When commissioners approved the project in 1994, that group sued, claiming the county did not follow proper procedure. In summer 1995, First District Judge Craig Kosonen agreed, and ordered commissioners to reconsider the project.

Commissioners did this winter, in a two-month series of meetings that ended Thursday.

But the future still holds questions.

While Kosonen’s ruling was a major victory, Rural Kootenai Organization attorneys Marc McGregor and Chuck Sheroke appealed the judge’s ruling. The state Supreme Court has been asked to decide whether McCormack should have had to start over the entire two-year approval process.

The group also appealed the commissioner’s preliminary approval in November. On Jan. 17, an appeal before the state health department will determine if the Division of Environmental Quality improperly approved a sewage treatment plan without proof that it will work - one of the reasons Kosonen tossed out the earlier approval.

Neither side will admit defeat.

Critic Hanson said, “We’re just trying to see this (legal) process through to it’s logical conclusion.”

Developer Forsch said, “We’re confident we have done everything to the letter of the law.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Map of Cougar Bay area

MEMO: Cut in the Spokane edition.