Fight over beach hits the courts

Coeur d’Alene city leaders want to end, once and for all, the fighting – and the potential for violence – over the ownership of Sanders Beach.

The city plans to file a lawsuit today asking a judge to determine the ordinary high-water mark on the popular shoreline between 12th and 15th streets. The high-water mark shows where private land ends and where publicly owned waters begin.

Coeur d’Alene Attorney Mike Gridley said the lawsuit will name the Sanders Beach homeowners between 12th and 15th streets, the Sanders Beach Preservation Association and the Idaho Department of Lands – parties that all have a stake in the location of the high-water mark.

“The city is caught in the middle of a controversy,” Gridley said. “We are corralling all the parties and taking it to court, saying, ‘Judge, you decide who owns this property.’ “

People have used Sanders Beach for nearly a century. As Coeur d’Alene’s population has grown and the lakefront property has changed owners, the annual summertime clashes have increased.

Homeowners between 12th and 15th streets believe their property extends to where Lake Coeur d’Alene laps at the sand. Yet many other Coeur d’Alene residents, including members of the Sanders Beach Preservation Association, believe the beach is public because people have been using it for years, and they assume it’s part of the state-managed land, just like the lake.

Homeowners are often upset the city refuses to enforce trespass laws. Beach users are often mad that the city won’t stop homeowners from attempting to kick them off the shore.

Gridley said the ordinary high-water mark will finally bring resolution to the issue before somebody gets hurt. And it could help decrease the lawsuits over waterfront owners erecting fences and barricades to restrict access to the beach, which violates a city law that prohibits structures south of East Lakeshore Drive between 12th and 15th streets.

Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas also is joining the complaint with the city.

“We’ve seen a potential for escalating violence,” Douglas said. “Emotions can run very high on the part of the property owner and the general public.”

The one highlighted case is an August 2003 battery report filed against an East Lakeshore Drive homeowner who allegedly grabbed an 8-year-old girl’s arm and pulled her off the beach.

The charges against Jerry Frank were dropped when he agreed to write a letter of apology to the child.

This was the first summer in many people’s memory when property owners consistently and aggressively kicked people off the beach. Occasionally the Coeur d’Alene Police were called. Many homeowners posted signs on their property that read “No Trespassing” or “Private Beach.”

Gridley said that once the high-water mark is established, the city could enforce the trespass laws. If a court determined the beach was privately owned by the homeowners, then the city would have options for securing the land for public use, whether it was buying the property, obtaining an easement or condemning the property.

But for now, Gridley said, the focus is determining the high-water mark. The ruling would just apply to the shoreline between 12th and 15th streets, not the entire lake, Gridley said.

In July, the Sanders Beach Preservation Association asked Coeur d’Alene, Kootenai County and the Idaho State Land Board to once and for all determine the high-water mark.

Gridley said this lawsuit is partially in response to that request but also in response to homeowners who want some type of resolution. The city, as in other years, tried this summer to work with the beach users and property owners to find a solution. So far the talks have gone nowhere.

Preservation association members weren’t available for comment Monday but spokesman Roger Johnson said in a July interview that the property owners and beach users can never come to an agreement – even though it’s been attempted for years – because each side is adamant they are right about who has ownership of the beach.

The Idaho Department of Lands attorney also wasn’t available for comment.

Frank declined to comment but has said, in response to the preservation association’s request, that establishing the high-water mark is just a way to take property from waterfront owners like him. In previous interviews he said that would result in a long legal battle.