State Likely To Approve Sanders Beach Dock Administrator Notes 94-Foot Structure Would Be Located On Private Property

The Idaho Department of Lands could decide this week to allow a 94-foot private dock at the east end of Sanders Beach.

The dock application was made jointly by Hagadone Hospitality Co. and co-owner Jerry Jaeger, who is building a lavish home between the city-owned Jewett House and the private Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course.

Public-use advocates for Sanders Beach said they feel the dock would bring motorboats near the popular swimming area. And they questioned the need for such a large dock.

“Boats and swimmers don’t mix very well. Anybody can see that,” longtime resident Art Manley said. “I understand it’s nice to have a boat dock in front of your house and most places on the lake do have that.

“But this is a unique situation on Sanders Beach - historically.”

Will Pitman, administrator of the Idaho Lake Protection Act, said the application involves private property and does not require public notice.

“We’ll make a decision as soon as I get to it,” Pitman said. “This is pretty straightforward.”

Asked if he had any reasons to deny the application, Pitman said: “No.”

Pitman received only one letter of comment. It came from the Coeur d’Alene City Council in a letter signed by Mayor Steve Judy on May 23.

“The Coeur d’Alene City Council would object if construction or operation of the proposed dock potentially endangered swimmers or presented an attractive nuisance to those who would use the existing public access,” the letter stated.

The council highlighted the dock’s length. “The Coeur d’Alene City Council expresses its concern regarding what it feels is an excessive encroachment into the public waterway.”

Don Aschinger, new chairman of the Kootenai County Waterways Advisory Board, said he hadn’t heard about the application, but isn’t opposed unless the dock creates a safety risk.

“We have (private docks) going up all over the place,” Aschinger said. “If it’s going to be turned into a commercial venture, then I would have some serious concerns.”

The application, signed by Jaeger and Hagadone Hospitality executive John Barlow, did not indicate any plans for commercial use.

Neither Jaeger nor Barlow returned phone messages left at their offices Monday.

According to the application, the 94-foot-long, 1,095-square-foot dock would include two boat slips.

The application indicates the dock “for use of personal watercraft” would serve both Jaeger’s house and a future house on a second lot. Both lots were annexed by the city last week.

The dock will be just east of 500 feet of beach that Hagadone Hospitality agreed to leave for public use. The agreement was part of the deal brokered by former Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus in exchange for allowing a waterfront lease for the floating green at the Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course.

A 6-foot fence, topped with barbed wire, separates the public beach from the golf course. It’s in that small section of fenced-off beach where Jaeger wants to build the dock, Pitman said.

Sanders Beach has attracted townspeople for more than 100 years - even before it became part of the city.

The beach was named after V.W. Sander, Coeur d’Alene’s first postmaster. Sander ran a general merchandise store that, by the turn of the century, carried the largest stock of goods in North Idaho.

Manley, 84, learned to swim at the age of 6 on the west end of Sanders Beach, where a copper-roofed house now sits.

Manley caught his first fish off the docks where the Coeur d’Alene Resort was built and still uses Sanders Beach each year for recreation.

“The old landowners along the beach were very accommodating to leaving whatever beach and rights they have to swimmers,” Manley said. “It was kind of a gentleman’s agreement.”

However, in recent years, at least three landowners along Sanders Beach have applied for dock permits.

The Department of Lands has refused to rule on those cases until the Idaho Supreme Court rules on a similar request by Don Dupont to build a dock off City Beach.

Paul Dircksen, a member of the Sanders Beach Preservation Association, had not heard about Jaeger’s request until Monday.

“I would be quite concerned about a dock that would be 94 feet. That’s quite a protrusion into the lake,” Dircksen said. “As soon as we get one dock, then there would be the argument `Why can’t I have one?”’