Opponents turn out to fight ministorage plan

Yellow jackets outnumber people on the east side of Lake Coeur d’Alene.

The buzzing of the bees and songs of the birds in the trees drown out sounds of the occasional car passing by on State Highway 97. The stretch of highway hugging the lake is designated a Scenic Byway.

A handful of residents in this remote part of Kootenai County are worried a proposed ministorage will be a blight on the country landscape and bring busy traffic to an otherwise quiet neighborhood. On Thursday, nine neighbors testified in opposition of the project before a Kootenai County hearing examiner.

“One neighbor said, ‘You’re bringing the city to us. We don’t want it,’ ” Greg Torline said Friday.

Longtime resident Jack Finney is asking for a conditional use permit for his property just east of Burma Road on Highway 97. He wants to build a 200-unit ministorage, a 100-by-100 rental warehouse and a caretaker’s residence. The 10-acre parcel is zoned rural.

Finney said he was surprised that his neighbors came to testify against the project he has proposed.

“There aren’t any legitimate concerns,” Finney said. He said several people are in support of the project, though none testified at Thursday’s hearing. If a second hearing is held, Finney said his supporters will be there.

“It’s something really badly needed out here,” Finney said.

Torline said most of his neighbors have barns, garages and storage sheds. For those who need storage, Torline said, Coeur d’Alene is a short drive away and a ministorage business is at the first exit of Interstate 90.

“All we have to do is drive to town if we want to be surrounded by ministorage and minimalls,” Burma Road resident Chelle Caruso said. “We’ve accepted the inconvenience of a drive.”

Residents are worried that if the county allows Finney to go ahead with his project it will open the door for other businesses. Right now, only a few businesses – mostly resorts on the lake – are along the highway.

Finney said his ministorage would hardly be visible from the highway, buffered by trees and bushes. He plans on tearing down an old building on the property, a former dry kiln, which he said will make the property look better than it does now.

“We’re definitely not going to do something that’s going to be an eyesore to the community,” he said.

But neighbor Stanley Stowe, who lives next door to the property – in the house he was born in – said he’s never seen a ministorage that looked attractive.

“I’d hate to see a storage unit up there,” Stowe said. “It doesn’t matter what you do to them. They’re still ugly.”

Caruso, who’s lived in the area with her husband for six years, said she’s concerned about the increased traffic and potential for accidents with boat trailers and U-Hauls pulling out onto the highway.

“People fly down that road going 60 to 70 miles per hour,” she said.

“It’s a Scenic Byway,” said her husband, Vince.

Finney said he doesn’t expect traffic to be affected.

“It’s just people out here that would be using it,” he said.

Commissioners could decide Finney’s request as soon as Sept. 8.