Spirit Lake Annexation Met With Skepticism Industrial Park Would Bring Needed Jobs And Commerce, Backers Contend
This small city desperately needs the jobs and commerce a proposed industrial park would bring, developers said Monday night.
“We’re looking at probably 150 jobs,” said project administrator Susan Korman. “People who work here will spend their dollars here, thus benefiting all of us.”
Opponents, however, said they fear such a large development threatens the rural, laid-back character of Spirit Lake.
“We’re not anti-growth; we’re for controlled growth,” said taxidermy shop owner Diane Berg. “We don’t want to be like Coeur d’Alene - that’s a nightmare now.”
The two sides faced off Monday at a hearing on whether to annex 358 acres northwest of the city, including 97 acres zoned for industry. After a half-hour of testimony, the City Council adjourned without a decision.
In addition to the industrial area, the annexation includes a 10-acre mobile-home and recreational vehicle park, and 167 acres of residential land. The city also would annex 85 acres of its own land - now located outside city limits - for sewage treatment.
If approved, the annexation would stretch Spirit Lake northwest into Bonner County.
It is unusual - though not unheard of - for cities to cross county lines, said Matt Hanzel of the Association of Idaho Cities.
Korman, wife of former mayor Paul Korman, painted the annexation as a boon to the city. It would spread the tax burden, she said, and reduce Spirit Lake’s double-digit unemployment. Contrary to rumor, she said, the city has more than enough sewer capacity for the project. Water for the industrial and mobile home parks would be supplied by a well owned by Tom and Carol Griffin, she said. She also said the development would be gradual.
“I don’t see a Harpers (furniture) coming in here, because I don’t think the city could support that,” Korman said.
She acknowledged that the development and its promised jobs are hypothetical. She said it would be at least 10 years before homes are built and at least three years before any industrial park is developed.
Still, many residents were not swayed.
“I think we’re about to destroy a small town,” said sheet metal worker Jim Lynn. “I don’t want this to be Post Falls or Rathdrum.”
“It makes me want to puke,” declared Jim Brown, Spirit Lake’s mayor in the late 1970s. He said many people oppose the annexation, but are reluctant to speak out.
Berg, the taxidermy shop owner, is skeptical that businesses will rush to locate in rural Spirit Lake. Some of the buildings downtown, she pointed out, have been vacant for years.
She predicted that the citizens who didn’t speak up Monday will quietly lobby the council to turn down the project.
“Growth should be the way the citizens want,” she said, “not the way the developers want.”
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