Priest Lake Homeowners Object To Dock Deal Residents Say Safety A Concern For Tentatively Approved 24-Slip Project

The Idaho Land Board’s deal to allow private boat docks along a public beach at Priest Lake is running into local opposition.

Homeowners near Canoe Point say plans for a 24-slip community dock could mean safety problems in an area already heavily used by boaters and water-skiers - along with the occasional swimmer or canoeist.

And the Selkirk-Priest Basin Association says private docks just aren’t compatible with a public recreational easement - and if the Land Board doesn’t listen to their arguments, they might sue.

The Land Board could consider final approval of the dock deal as soon as May 28. The board gave it tentative approval last month, with members saying the public will come out ahead.

Richard Barbieri, vice president and general counsel for Huckleberry Bay Co., said the safety questions will be addressed in the final agreement, and the association’s legal arguments already have been rejected by the Land Board.

Barbieri’s company, a developer of homes along and near the beach, wants the state to allow seven private docks and three multi-slip community docks at Huckleberry Bay and Canoe Point. Those docks would serve homeowners in the company’s development, some of whom have lots fronting the public easement along the lakeshore.

Although the beach land is privately owned, an easement owned by the state guarantees public access.

Barbieri sweetened the deal for the state by throwing in an access road across company-owned land to serve 12 state-owned lakefront lots that now are accessible only by boat. He also offered to have a homeowners’ association maintain the public beach and provide trash pickup; build a six-space gravel parking lot; allow public tie-ups at the ends of two of the docks; and maintain three public accesses to the beach.

The access road is of great value to the state endowment, Land Board members noted. But the Selkirk-Priest Basin Association says it’s no reason to violate a public recreational easement for the beach.

“If I were a visitor to the lake, I would be very upset if what was put in trust for my benefit was used for the commercial advantage for somebody else,” said Jules Gindraux, an 18-year Priest Lake resident and board member of the association. “The easement was meant for the purpose of providing the public with the pleasure and use of those lakefront areas.”

There are two public-use easements in the area, one that is 5,700 feet long in Huckleberry Bay and one that is 1,000 feet long at Canoe Point.

The docks at Huckleberry Bay would be along the public easement, while the Canoe Point marina would be just east of the easement. But Barbieri said the docks won’t block public use of the beach.

“The docks are in the water,” he said - not on the land.

On the safety issue, Canoe Point cabin owner Martin Stacey wrote to the Land Board: “The intense, unregulated power-boating, waterskiing, jet-boating originating from the public beach at Canoe Point is a tragedy waiting to happen.”

“On weekends, it is impossible, or to say the least, foolhardy for Idaho citizens to allow their children to swim or otherwise enjoy the water.”

Bob Adams, Stacey’s neighbor at Canoe Point, said the area is popular with boaters because it’s protected from the wind.

“To put in an additional 24 boat docks without somehow regulating the speed and the traffic near the shoreline, I think we’re just inviting a serious problem,” Adams said.

Barbieri said he hopes to address the safety issue through an agreement for buoys or speed limits near the shore.

“It’s an existing problem, not a problem being created by Huckleberry Bay Co.,” Barbieri said.

Gindraux of the Selkirk-Priest Basin Association said the group might sue if the Land Board goes ahead with the deal. But Barbieri wasn’t concerned.

“Their arguments have all been fully considered by the Idaho Land Board and taken into account in the unanimous decision the Land Board made last month,” he said.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WHAT’S NEXT The Land Board could consider final approval of the docks as soon as May 28.