City Must Protect Access To Beach

Sanders Beach has been a Coeur d’Alene battleground for too long.

Adjacent property owners and Sanders Beach fans have battled for a quarter century over a host of issues - a sea wall, beach access, curfew, cleanup and, most of all, ownership. West Lakeshore Drive homeowners, for example, balked at routine beach cleanup, fearing it would support Coeur d’Alene’s attempt to claim squatters’ rights.

Now, the city finds itself in a put-up or shut-up position. Spurred by a District Court ruling last month that supported lakeshore owners’ claims to submerged land, Sanders Beach homeowner Joe Chapman has applied for a permit to build a duplex or triplex on the beach.

Of course, that’s a sacrilege to anyone who grew up swimming and sunbathing on the Coeur d’Alene beach. Or to anyone who admires the pleasant lake vista, framed by Tubbs Hill on the west and Silver Beach on the east. Yet, the homeowner has the right to contaminate Sanders Beach with a building unless he is compensated for not doing so.

Coeur d’Alene officials should act to protect public access by beginning negotiations to buy the beach or an easement to it. At the least, the city should declare a moratorium on beach construction until the state decides what to do with 1st District Judge Craig Kosonen’s decision setting Lake Coeur d’Alene’s high-water mark at 2,121 feet above sea level.

In a case involving a small Kidd Island Bay island, Kosonen set the high-water mark seven feet lower than recognized by the state of Idaho. That means lakeshore owners might own submerged land dozens of feet from the shoreline.

Sanders Beach homeowners traditionally have claimed ownership of the beach but graciously have allowed swimmers to use it. But that relationship has soured as property has changed hands and Sanders Beach owners have contended with late-night parties, graffiti and obstinate beachcombers.

Some of the problems were addressed a few years ago when the city closed the beach at night at the homeowners’ request.

The city’s love affair with Sanders Beach parallels that with Tubbs Hill. Sanders Beach has provided generations of families with access to Lake Coeur d’Alene, away from teeming City Beach.

The city no longer can count on the good graces of new Sanders Beach homeowners to provide uncontested access to their lake frontage. Nor should it. It’s past time that the city pays for residents’ privilege to play.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria/For the editorial board