Suit Challenges Deal On Docks At Priest Lake

A deal allowing private docks on a public Priest Lake beach is being challenged in court.

The Selkirk-Priest Basin Association has filed a lawsuit in Bonner County declaring that the deal struck between Idaho officials and Huckleberry Bay Co. violates the conditions of a public easement.

“This new agreement allows private docks on public beaches which is a clear violation of the public’s rights … and could compromise the safety of swimmers,” said Kevin Watson, SPBA executive director in a prepared statement.

Spokane developer Richard Barbieri is vice president of Huckleberry Bay Co., which developed the Priest Lake subdivision of the same name on the northeast end of the lake.

The company wants to put in three multi-slip community docks and seven private docks along a 5,700-foot beach for the development.

The previous owner of the property gave the state a recreational easement to the beach, guaranteeing public access. The easement was revised after a public hearing in 1991 allowing Huckleberry Bay to build a community dock along 700 feet of the beach.

The recent deal with the Land Board came after the Department of Lands denied Huckleberry Bay Co.’s dock applications for docks all along the beach.

Under the state’s agreement, the beach still is open to the public, and the developer is putting in an access road across companyowned land to serve state-owned waterfront lots now only accessible by boat.

While the beach will be open to the public, homeowners near the development fear the water will become dangerously congested.

, DataTimes