Market rate moorages floated

BOISE – New members of the state Land Board, including the new state controller and superintendent of schools, proposed Tuesday to eliminate a requirement that float homes on Idaho lakes be charged “reasonable” rents, and instead let the market rule.

But the full Land Board didn’t make a final decision, and Lt. Gov. Jim Risch, who sat in for Gov. Butch Otter, warned that there’s more to the story.

“I think that we have a unique opportunity coming up with these (marina) leases expiring this year,” Risch told the board. “The board is going to have to wrestle with the idea of what is ‘reasonable.’ “

Anxious North Idaho float-home owners who traveled to the Boise meeting said they were relieved. “Thank you (to) former Gov. Risch – so glad he was there, because he really has a grasp of the problem,” Lynn Shoemaker said after the meeting.

Shoemaker said marina owners who rent moorage spaces to float homes have a “state-sanctioned monopoly.”

In 1998, the state Land Board cut off all new permits for floating homes on state-owned lakes, limiting them to the 200 existing at that time on lakes Pend Oreille and Coeur d’Alene. The state also has a policy requiring that rents charged to the remaining float-home owners be “reasonable.”

But in the past year, Bayview float-home owners have complained that some marina owners have sharply upped their rates and are demanding they pay large sums to “buy” their slips or be evicted.

Several attempts by the state Lands Department to bring marina owners and float-home owners together haven’t led to a solution. As a result, the Lands Department staff has recommended repeatedly to repeal the “reasonable” rent clause and let the market set prices. A subcommittee of the board, chaired by new state Controller Donna Jones, looked into the issue in recent months and reached the same conclusion.

New state Superintendent of Schools Tom Luna said, “I’m sympathetic to the concerns of the people that currently live there … but I’m a free-marketer.”

Float-home owners say they’re stuck, because their floating homes are expensive to move and there are few options. Since friction has developed with marina owners, the homes also have become difficult to sell, they said.

Ron Herin, a retiree who owns a float home in Boileau’s Marina at Bayview, told the board, “I put it up for sale – people come and they look at it, and they love it. As soon as I disclose what’s going on, they turn around and run.”

Luna said, “I suspect the reason more marinas haven’t been built is because the rent is so low.” If rents rise, more people will want to invest in marinas, he said. “That to me sounds like the market, a free enterprise system working and working well.”

But, Risch said, “If it was a free market, I don’t think we’d be here.” The state put the parties into the situation they’re now facing, he noted.

Risch said with the 10-year state leases for all but one of the marinas with float homes up for renewal this year, the state has an opportunity to write in rules regarding rent increases and requirements. An example could be binding arbitration when there’s a dispute between the marina owner and the float-home owner, he added.

Bayview float-home owner Jamie Berube said after the meeting, “Binding arbitration would be great. … Then we would have some type of remedy to this problem.”

Jones said the subcommittee she chaired simply concluded that the state had no authority to enforce changes in arrangements between landlords and tenants. But she said her panel wasn’t charged with looking into what could be done during lease renewals.

Risch said, “The state is a party to these matters,” and is subject to the public trust doctrine in how it approaches management of state-owned lakes. “It isn’t just a simple matter of landlord-tenant law,” he said.

Secretary of State Ben Ysursa said, “I don’t have a magic rabbit out of a hat on how to cure this.” But removing the requirement for “reasonable” rents would send “a bad signal,” he said. “The fees have gone up considerably. … I for one think we ought to keep trying.”

Dozens of float-home owners, some of whom have had their Bayview float homes for as long as 50 years, wrote letters to the state pleading for help in keeping their homes. The Bayview Chamber of Commerce sent a letter saying the floating homes long have brought business to the town and are a valued part of the community. “The Bayview community would experience a great historical and economic loss if owners are forced out of their homes and the homes are sold off to the rich,” the letter said.

Risch said a decision should await the return of Otter, who is on vacation in California this week. The board deferred the issue to its next regular meeting, next month.