Our Waterways Must Be Protected
Come with us, if you will, back in time to 1994 and the Kootenai County commissioner campaigns.
Republican candidates Dick Compton and Dick Panabaker are weighing in on a county plan that would ban wintertime excavation. Developers are up in arms. This’ll ruin us, they scream. This’ll create building bottlenecks. We’ll sue.
Tut, tut, Dick and Dick tell their growth-at-any-cost backers with winks. Things’ll be different when we’re in office.
Now, fast forward to the opening months of Dick and Dick’s first term in office. See them appointing a large 45-member committee to address shoreline protection? They stack their committee with development representatives, including excavators, contractors, architects, landscapers, engineers, real-estate agents and officers from property owners associations.
Off to work they go. They meet 42 times over 18 months and recommend that the county protect its renowned waterways by banning excavation within 75 feet of shorelines. They provide a loophole for smaller lots.
Finally, fast forward to early August. Reality has set in. The developers, real estate agents and lakefront homeowners are back - angry as ever. They feel betrayed by the proposal and the all-Republican commission. We won’t be able to develop every lot on the waterfront, they cry. You’ve denied us our private property rights. We’ll sue.
Tut, tut, Dick and Dick tell their growth-at-any-cost backers with winks. We’ll appoint a smaller committee to gut the plan.
Much hangs in the balance, as Kootenai County commissioners decide whether to follow the recommendations of the original committee, or to cave in to a special-interest group. Already, willy-nilly development and shoreline-hugging homes have degraded the county’s waterways.
Rather than bend, commissioners should heed the voice of reason raised at the Aug. 8 meeting by Bob Hamilton, the Coeur d’Alene Association of Realtors’ representative on the draft committee. With minor tinkering, Hamilton said, the plan will safeguard the county’s lakes and pose little threat to property owners. He added: “This will help protect these lakes for our children.”
The goal of setback regulations is simple: to protect county lakes from phosphorus, which sparks algae growth and depletes oxygen in water. Phosphorus clings to fresh earth and pours into the lake during snowmelt and heavy rain. The result can be ugly algae, bays choked with weeds, water too warm to support cold-water fish like trout.
The 75-foot setback proposed for soil disturbance is reasonable. The best way to protect the water (and provide wildlife habitat) is to leave natural vegetation in place. A well-fertilized lawn - or golf course - on the water’s edge may look beautiful in slick real-estate ads, but it takes a heavy toll on water quality.
Shoreline lots on algae-choked bays and lakes don’t provide much of a sales commission.
County commissioners plan to rule on the proposed shoreline ordinance Oct. 2. For all the lip service these politicians give the environment each election year, that ruling will show where their hearts really are.
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