Council Approves Blackwell Island Plan Over Protest Developer To Build Rv Park On Flood Plain South Of River

City leaders approved on Tuesday a controversial 220-site recreational vehicle park on Blackwell Island - again.

After three years, 13 meetings and a lawsuit that reversed an earlier decision, developer and Coeur d’Alene Yacht Club owner Mark Hall finally may begin developing his 40-acre site south of the Spokane River along U.S. Highway 95.

The City Council approved the project, despite complaints from more than a dozen opponents about traffic congestion, potential taxpayer liability and possible environmental contamination.

Council members said the RV park was the best and safest use of the property, which floods regularly and once was used as a city landfill.

The project, which has been in the works since 1994, marks the first development in the city limits on the south side of the Spokane River.

An organized group of city and county residents, calling itself the Rural Kootenai Organization, has bitterly opposed the project. They argue it would be the first step toward extending city services into traditionally rural parts of the county.

Group member Wes Hanson showed the council a video, which showed the entire property was under water during the February 1996 floods.

Disturbing the old city dump and putting vehicles there will just send dangerous contaminants downriver during future floods, he said.

“We know darn well we’re going to have petroleum runoff,” Hanson said.

City resident Pat Behm complained that the 220 sites, combined with a new U.S. Bureau of Land Management boat ramp across the highway, will worsen an already dangerous highway intersection.

And Denise Clark, a founding member of the Rural Kootenai Organization, said approving a development in a flood-prone area subjects city taxpayers to likely liability from RV owners.

But Hall pointed out that the proposal - and the arguments against it - hadn’t changed since 1995, when council members previously approved the project.

That decision was overturned by a judge, who ruled the city wrongly approved the development before actually annexing the project.

Hall said his buildings on an adjacent site will be built 3 feet above the 100-year flood plain. His engineers said federal wetland regulations will adequately protect the site from environmental contamination.

Hall said he has been sitting on the property for 40 years waiting for the appropriate time to develop it. He said he has been paying up to $30,000 a year on taxes, even though the land sits undeveloped.

But opponents contend city and state agencies are so eager to see the project developed they’ve done a poor job of evaluating the risks.

, DataTimes