Plan includes 22-acre park on Canfield

Coeur d’Alene may get a public park on Canfield Mountain, but it might come with a neighboring 52-lot housing development.

“It’s a very good compromise,” said Greg Snyder, of Quest Development.

The company revised its plans for the upscale Copper Ridge development off Shadduck Lane after the Coeur d’Alene City Council rejected its first subdivision proposal in June because of narrow streets, traffic congestion and water pressure concerns. Neighbors feared the plan would open development on the steeper slopes of Canfield Mountain.

Now Quest wants to donate 22 acres on the top of the hillside to the city for Prospector Park, which would have hiking and biking trails. Fifty-two homes, with an average price of $300,000, would be built on the remaining 27 acres.

Most of the homes in the gated community would be built on the flat ground at the base of the mountain. About 19 of those houses would be built on the steeper slope and subject to the city’s hillside building rules.

Snyder, who owns the company with Fred LeClair, said their plan should satisfy the neighbors and the city. Snyder said the new proposal has fewer homes, a city park and wider streets. Residents would access the development off Shadduck Lane and through a new extension of Mountain Vista Drive, which currently dead ends at the hill’s base. “We were listening,” Snyder said. “I hope the neighborhood likes the plan.”

Citizens Against Copper Ridge isn’t so sure. Spokeswoman Jay Barnett said the group is reviewing the new plan and isn’t yet ready to comment.

The Coeur d’Alene Planning Commission will have a public hearing on the new proposal Sept. 14.

The neighborhood group has been scrambling since June to figure out a way to buy the entire 49 acres for a park. The timbered land is owned by the Coeur d’Alene Seventh-day Adventist Church, which initially planned to build a school on the property. Now Quest has an exclusive option to buy the land.

In June, Quest said it was open to selling the land to the neighbors, but Snyder said Monday it’s doubtful the group could raise enough cash. He anticipates each of the 52 lots will sell for $90,000.

Coeur d’Alene Parks Director Doug Eastwood met with the neighbors last week and learned they still want to buy a chunk of the property, but money remains a problem.

Eastwood said Quest’s offer to donate 22 acres to the city is a good gesture. “There’s always been a high interest that the city acquire or have a piece of Canfield Mountain so we don’t lose it all forever,” he said. “Certainly (Quest) is making every effort to accommodate the concerns heard.”

Eastwood said the city would leave the hillside park natural but make some trail improvements after consulting with the U.S. Forest Service. The acreage hooks into Forest Service land, and Eastwood said the trails need continuity.

The current plan shows a public parking lot at the end of Shadduck Lane, outside the gated community. People would have to walk or ride their bike through the Copper Ridge streets to access the trailhead. Eastwood said he would like to have a better access point so the public doesn’t meander through the residential area.

Quest is asking the city to change the zoning on the lower 27 acres to allow three homes per acre.

Quest also wants to build a 500,000-gallon water tank on the top of the hill in the proposed park area, which the company estimates would provide 700 homes in the north end of Coeur d’Alene with better water pressure. Snyder said the tank would be hidden in a draw.

The city’s current rules prevent any building on the hillside above a 2,240-foot elevation because of water pressure problems. Snyder said the water tank would help the city provide water at higher elevations, and Quest will ask the city to amend the rule.

Quest initially proposed building 27 homes on the lower 9 acres and developing the remaining 40 acres in the future. The long-term plan was to eventually build 47 more homes on the hillside while leaving some open space.

Neighbors were suspicious of Quest’s plans and feared the company was working with Marvin Erickson to help provide him access to a proposed 44-acre home development on Canfield Mountain.

Erickson is known for the Z-shaped road up the hill’s face to the north of the proposed Copper Ridge property.

Mountain Crest Development LLC, in which Erickson is a minority owner, owns the 90 acres next to the Copper Ridge property.

Erickson once again is under public scrutiny for heavily logging the land, which is overseen by the state Forest Practices Act.

Quest representatives have tried to reassure neighbors that the Copper Ridge project would look nothing like Erickson’s hillside home.