Golf retreat decision put off for testimony

The Kootenai County commission is reopening public testimony on a proposal for a golf retreat overlooking Powderhorn Bay after a neighborhood group raised concerns about fairness.

The commission intended to decide Thursday whether to approve two requests for changes in the comprehensive plan to allow for the luxury golf community near Harrison and a gigantic housing development that could become a new town near Silverwood Theme Park near Athol.

Instead, the commission voted to reopen public testimony on Heartland’s golf course proposal but limit comments to the handful of people present Monday when the commissioners and county staff toured the site on the east side of Lake Coeur d’Alene.

Bev Twillmann and the group Neighbors for Responsible Growth allege that Commissioner Katie Brodie asked questions of Heartland Managing Director Steve Walker and spoke with consultant Rand Wichman, the former county planning director who is now working for Heartland, the Seattle-based development company. They claim that because public testimony was closed, the commissioners couldn’t talk to the developer.

The people who attended the site visit can provide testimony Wednesday during a public hearing. The commission will make a final decision on both Powderhorn and Rickel Ranch Oct. 5.

Brodie apologized to about 100 people who attended the meeting for the delay.

“The only testimony we want is that germane to the site visit, the 20 minutes we were there,” she said.

After the meeting, Twillmann said that she would have preferred Brodie to recuse herself from voting on the golf course project but that the new hearing will allow her group to counter what Walker told the commission on the tour.

Twillmann alleges that Brodie asked Walker why the land is no longer farmed. Heartland wants to change the county growth plan to designate the property rural instead of agricultural and timber. Walker has presented studies that show the property is no longer viable farm and timber land.

“We want to rebut that,” said Twillmann, who believes the property still can be farmed. “That was the problem. We couldn’t insert our new information.”

Twillmann declined to reveal the new findings until the public hearing. It’s likely that the new information is that a large portion of the property, the acreage that was once farmed, is in the federal Conservation Reserve Program. The program is run by the Farm Service Agency and pays farmers to not plant crops on fields.

County planner Mark Mussman confirmed that much of the property is in the program.

The requests to change the comprehensive plan, which is the foundation of all land-use decisions, have sparked heated debates. Neighborhood groups across the county have popped up to fight any proposal for large developments in rural areas.

The county Planning Commission unanimously recommended denial of both Heartland and Rickel Ranch’s requests to change the growth plan. The planners said it’s premature to amend the planning guide while it is undergoing a complete rewrite.

This isn’t the first time the commission’s ethics have been scrutinized by neighborhood groups. In July, residents questioned if Commission Chairman Gus Johnson’s support of the expansion of Black Rock, another multimillion-dollar private golf retreat, was influenced when he received a box of old horseshoes from the owner of a construction company that works for the club.

Johnson said he intended to give the horseshoes to his father, who welds the metal into lawn ornaments. That’s why Brodie laughed during Thursday’s meeting when Johnson presented her with a silver horseshoe for “her dealing with the site visit accusations.”

Commissioner Rick Currie joked that it should become a traveling trophy for commissioners who are accused of missteps.

“This will go to many, many commissioners in the future,” Johnson said.

Ken Dorris, a Hayden resident who keeps tabs on projects that could jeopardize rural areas, wasn’t amused.

“I feel like it’s mocking the public’s feelings,” Dorris said. “Public scrutiny is an integral part of public service.”