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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Evicted float homes are a tough sell


Dae Ann Strickell, left, and Chuck Strickell have had their float home at Blackwell Island for 5 years.  They have until September to move it.

Chuck Strickell was swamped with calls when a “For Sale” sign went up on his Blackwell Island float home.

Would-be buyers gushed over the $32,000 cabin on floats, with its promise of fishing off the back porch. But every showing ended with a deal breaker.

“As soon as I told them it had to be moved, the sale was off,” Strickell said.

Strickell and a handful of other Blackwell Island float-home owners face a conundrum. Their landlord, Hagadone Hospitality, is ending their lease at the Yacht Club Marina on Sept. 15. Finding new moorings is difficult.

Float homes – a remnant of Lake Coeur d’Alene’s blue-collar past – are increasingly unwelcome on the lake.

Thirty years ago, the state stopped issuing permits for new float homes, amid concerns about private structures in state waters, and waste disposal from homes without sewer hook-ups. Existing float homes were allowed to remain under a “grandfather clause.”

The remaining float homes are something of a novelty. Many had humble beginnings as boat garages for lake fishermen, or cheap living quarters for laborers. But like older mobile homes, they carry a certain stigma. When owners get eviction notices, their options are limited.

Few Lake Coeur d’Alene marinas accept float homes. A permit to moor one on private property requires notifying the neighbors, who get a chance to object. The scarcity of available lake lots is also part of the difficulty.

“You’re better off in an established area, where float homes already exist,” said Carl Washburn, a specialist in submerged land leasing at the Idaho Department of Lands, who handles float-home permits. “If the neighbors have a nice view of green forest backdrop, and you propose to move one in … you may get an aesthetic outcry.”

Strickell and his wife, Dae Ann, bought their float home at Blackwell Island six years ago. The modest, metal-sided cabin provided a waterfront getaway without a hefty price.

“I love being on the lake,” Chuck Strickell said. “You can get a lot of smallmouth bass off the back porch. You can hang out and go swimming. This was affordable compared to buying waterfront.”

April to November, the couple spent their weekends in the one-room float house. They barbecued on the deck, and fell asleep to the gentle lull of the waves. They paid a monthly moorage fee of $340.

In August, the Strickells received an eviction letter from Hagadone Hospitality. The company had recently purchased the marina, and planned to add more boat slips. “The future Yacht Club design will no longer include float houses,” the eviction letter said.

Hagadone officials did not return phone calls on Friday.

The Strickells considered buying lakefront property and moving the float home. Prices were out of their reach.

Even with a 13-month eviction notice, the Strickells aren’t sure they’ll find a buyer for their float home before the September deadline.

“We’ll probably have to destroy it,” Chuck Strickell said.

Several of his neighbors were luckier. One Blackwell Island float home was towed to Kidd Island Bay last year, where the new owner already had lakefront property. Tom Michalski also found a buyer for his float home.

For 20 years, Michalski operated Tom’s Diving Adventures out of a float home at Blackwell Island. Divers loved the retail shop’s quaint quarters. Like many of the float houses on the lake, the 1960s structure had hewn beams and a colorful past. Tug boat crews once lived there.

When Michalski retired, he sold the float home as a package deal with land at Moscow Bay. The float home, by itself, went for $20,000.

“If it was in Bayview, I could have made a quick sale for $120,000,” Michalski said.

The resort town of Bayview on Lake Pend Oreille is the epicenter for North Idaho’s 170 float homes. Multiple marinas there accept them. But the structures are too cumbersome to move from lake to lake.

One of the Strickells’ potential buyers looked into moving the float home to another lake. The 55-by-25 foot dimensions defeated him. “The only way to move it is by water,” Chuck Strickell said.

In Heyburn State Park at the southern end of Lake Coeur d’Alene, float home owners also face an uncertain future. Twenty-four float homes rent space from the park. Some have occupied the cove of Hidden Bay since the early 1900s, when they were used as floating logging camps.

Fifteen years ago, the state Parks and Recreation Board developed a plan to phase out the float homes by 2010.

“They’re in a very secluded and beautiful area,” said David White, northern region manager for the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation.

The site could be developed for boat-in camping to serve a growing demand for public shoreline access, he said. For that to happen, however, the float homes would have to leave.

“They literally line the lake shore,” White said.

Float home owners have asked the board to reconsider the 2010 deadline. The Parks and Rec board will discuss the issue at its April meeting in Coeur d’Alene.

In 1990, when the decision was made to evict the float homes, many were dumping sewage into the lake, White said. Now, the owners comply with the Panhandle Health Department’s sanitary regulations.

Board members will also consider the difficulty in finding new moorage, said Randal Rice, a Parks and Rec board member from Moscow. “They don’t have an easy way to relocate.”

The float homes have historical value, said Tim Greene, a Moscow resident, float home owner, and former corporate attorney. “When they logged the St. Joe River, many of them were used as working cabins,” Greene said.

Float-home owners pay their way, he said. Each owner pays an annual lease fee of $1,200 to $1,400 to the state, he said.

“I don’t sense a rush to push people out,” Greene said. “I think the board will be careful and deliberate in how they decide this. Relocating 24 float homes would not be a happy option.”