Blackwell Island Vote Delayed Controversial Development Placed On Aug. 15 Agenda

The City Council won’t consider a proposal for a 220-site recreational vehicle park on Blackwell Island until August.

A hearing that began last week before 30 angry opponents of the project will resume Aug. 15.

Several city council members will be out of town, so city leaders don’t expect to have a quorum during today’s 7 p.m. meeting, said City Clerk Susan Weathers.

River View RV Park, a proposal by Spokane developer Mark Hall, , has been in the works for more than a year.

Dozens of neighbors from Blackwell Hill and Cougar Gulch have attended a score of hearings since mid-1994.

The project has been scaled back from 292 sites to 220 and would fall on 30 acres of an old city landfill immediately south of U.S. Highway 95.

An adjacent 10 acres would be used for a convention center and shopping.

Hall and other family members have said the project would provide needed overnight camping spots for RV tourists and would make the city’s southwest corridor inviting to out-of-town visitors.

Neighbors argue it is a dangerous proposal because the land lies below the floodplain and atop an old dump.

They also worry what it means for future expansion.

Approval of the proposal would mark the first time city borders crossed the Spokane River.

Nearby county residents fear successful annexation would be the first in a long line of expansion projects to move the city and urban life into their rural neighborhoods.

Coeur d’Alene Mayor Al Hassell has said, however, that it’s only a matter of time before the city expands across the river.

, DataTimes