Kidd Island Wall Builders Appeal State Order Homeowners Object To Attached Conditions

Because of attached conditions, two Kidd Island Bay homeowners are appealing a recent state order that lets them keep a seawall they built without a permit.

Reversing a 1998 decision, the Idaho Department of Lands will let Glenn Gusa and Jay Cordes keep the 89-foot wall they built to stem bank erosion from passing power boats.

But the agency wants them to pay $5,000 for lost fish habitat and an additional, as-yet undetermined easement for taking up public lake bottom.

The state also wants Gusa and Cordes to follow state guidelines on preventing storm water runoff that could threaten the lake’s water quality.

“The use of the lakebed of Lake Coeur d’Alene for private purpose is uncommon and is not normally in the best interest of the public trust,” Jay Biladeau, the agency’s assistant director, wrote in an Aug. 10 order.

The state argues that the seawall - built at roughly 2,125 feet above sea level - lies on public land because anything below 2,128 feet is state property, as deeded to Idaho when it became a state in 1890.

The state Supreme Court ruled in 1998 that 2,128 is the lake’s high-water mark, because there is no conclusive evidence otherwise.

But Gusa and Cordes say the lake turns public at 2,121 feet, as established by land surveys around the time of statehood.

They are appealing the case in 1st District Court in Kootenai County. A decision is not expected until next year.

“In May 1892, a land surveyor meandered around Kidd Island Bay and he meandered at 2,121,” said John Magnuson, the Coeur d’Alene attorney representing both homeowners. “He put up stone monuments, pounded iron posts … We have to assume he didn’t have scuba gear. He put them at the shoreline.”

The state will likely ask the landowners to pay a $250 annual easement on each of their properties, Magnuson predicted.

In addition, the state wants Gusa and Cordes to pay the $5,000 to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, which they dispute “because there aren’t a lot of fish in the 3 feet of water at the back of the bay,” Magnuson said.

In 1998, lands department staffer Carl Washburn denied the seawall permit.

That year, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the then-Idaho Division of Environmental Quality expressed concerns the wall could pollute the lake.

Environmental officials recommended removing the wall, unless rip-rap and other measures were included to reduce runoff.

State fish biologists also wanted the wall taken out.

Biladeau repeated Fish and Game concerns in his Aug. 10 order: “(E)ncroachments like these serve to convert publicly accessible and owned waters into private ownership, with no benefits in return to the public.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: ALSO IN THE NEWS Related case

A related lake-level case involving Idaho Forest Industries’ shoreline property on Hayden Lake goes before the Idaho state Supreme Court on Oct. 2