Developer Says Rathdrum Project’S Dead Council’S Annexation Stipulation Kills Plans For 228 Manufactured Homes

Plans for a 228-site manufactured-home park here are dead.

In a 2-1 vote Tuesday, the Rathdrum City Council took 32 acres just west of the Prairie Estates subdivision into the city limits.

But developers say the city wants the lots to be too large, making it impossible for 228 manufactured homes to fit on the land.

“This stops it,” Ken Way said Wednesday. Way had proposed the annexation with his son Scott and landowner Dan Bedwell.

Way said the group now will ask the city to reverse the annexation.

Pleasant Way Village would have included the manufactured homes, a recreation center, horseshoe pits, a picnic spot and open park areas.

“We were planning a nice project for the city of Rathdrum,” Way said. “There’s a need for entry-level housing.”

The group has the option of working out a development agreement which would outline the number of homes and the amount of park space in the proposed manufactured-home park.

But Way said the project is dead.

Many residents voiced opposition to Pleasant Way Village during Tuesday’s meeting, saying it would cause an increase in traffic and would deflate property values.

“Don’t make us regret moving to Rathdrum by mixing up the lower-income housing with the upper,” resident Scott D. Johnson wrote in a memo to council members.

Residents Kelly and Dana Calabretto wrote that they oppose the manufactured-home park because it would “increase traffic flow on California (Street).”

Way said he doesn’t think council members voted for the larger lots in an effort to kill the development.

Councilman Chuck Holt said he voted for the larger lots because they would give the city more control over traffic flow.

Rathdrum has been one of the fastest-growing cities in North Idaho, the U.S. Census Bureau says.

And with growth comes traffic, Way said.

In April, the council gave preliminary approval to Golden Spike Park, a mobile-home park south of Rathdrum just off state Highway 41.

By 2002, about 334 mobile homes are planned on 75 acres near Betty Keifer Elementary School.