Neighbors Band To Save Beach Cda Residents Worry That Building Plans Will Ban Them From A Favorite Strip Of Sand
There’s nothing like a sunny September morning, with dogs swimming after sticks and a breeze coming off Lake Coeur d’Alene, to make residents lament the closure of another piece of Sanders Beach.
“It should be for the good of the many, not the good of one,” said Jan Johnson, who frequents this narrow strip of sand south of Lakeshore Drive. “I don’t think anyone should own the beach - the beach belongs to the lake.”
“It’s always been there for public use,” added George Sayler, who lives a block from Sanders Beach. His children are the fifth generation to enjoy public access to the lake.
“I’d like for that to be the case in five more generations,” Sayler said.
But the city of Coeur d’Alene has issued businessman Joe Chapman a building permit for a house on the shoreline, near the intersection of 12th Street and East Lakeshore Drive. And people who use this beach fear that it’s a sign their favorite little beach soon will be off limits.
Chapman could not be reached for comment.
People in the neighborhood recently sent a letter to the city council asking that Chapman’s building permit be rescinded. They say two ordinances - one dating to 1928 and one to 1965 - prohibit the latest controversial construction project in the area.
They also want the city to work out a deal for permanent public access to a 20-foot strip of waterfront. They plan to attend the council meeting Tuesday night to lobby for their plan.
“City Beach gets a cross section of visitors and tourists,” said Paul Dircksen, who has lived within a block of the beach for 22 years. “This is more of a local thing. My kids were raised down there.”
Step one is to “stop the building, because once it starts, it won’t stop,” Dircksen said. Then the city needs to clear up ambiguity about who owns the beach. If it’s not the public, then the city needs to buy the land or negotiate a permanent right of way, residents say.
Problems have flared up occasionally at Sanders Beach for decades, but they always died off. That’s changing.
One homeowner put up “no trespassing” signs and had a sunbather arrested five years ago. Then last year, Chapman proposed building condominiums on the small strip of ground between Lakeshore Drive and the water.
The city refused Chapman’s request. Meanwhile, city planning commissioners urged the council to buy or lease the beach. Nothing happened.
Chapman finally got a permit to build a two-bedroom home on the beach this summer. And he’s submitted plans to tear down his spacious home across the street and replace it with condominiums.
He’s put small boulders along the waterline, and some people read that as a precursor to a closed beach.
“This man obviously is very self-centered,” Johnson said.
Gena Schuette concurs.
“Lake Coeur d’Alene doesn’t have a lot of places you can go,” she said as she lobbed a stick into the water for her dog from near Chapman’s building site.
Schuette shakes her head, thinking about Oregon, where she grew up. “At the lakes there, (the shoreline) is all public,” she said.
If the city purchases the property or negotiates an easement, something will have to be done to keep the litter down, suggested Tony Glander.
Everyone agrees.
“I’ve seen diapers out here, it’s gross,” Jim Jackson said, as he leaned up against a seawall and took in the sun. “They should have the beach users come down here once a month and clean up.
Sayler believes offering regular city patrols might be an incentive for the property owners to allow such an easement. But it’s time to act, he said.
“With the status quo, the public is losing ground.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: MEETING The Coeur d’Alene City Council meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday in City Hall.