It wasn’t that long ago that Bob Templin’s old North Shore Resort was the ritziest place in North Idaho.

Nor was it that long ago that lumber mills dominated Coeur d’Alene’s waterfront – not upscale developments like The Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course and John Stone’s Riverstone. Go back 20 years, and you’ll find Post Falls struggling to shake its image as a bedroom community for neighboring Coeur d’Alene and Spokane. It had no resort center. The East Seltice Way business district was a mix of odd buildings and weeds. Riverbend Commerce Park was an empty field in desperate need of sewer hookup.

Timber and mining have given way to tourism. Grass fields are sprouting houses as fast as they can be built. In the 1990s, Kootenai County grew by 39,000 people to more than 100,000. The most endangered species in the county is Rathdrum Prairie farmers whose field-burning practices are condemned annually by neighbors encroaching on all sides of the agricultural greenbelt. The Coeur d’Alene Place subdivision has gobbled a chunk on the eastern edge of the prairie, Montrose and other Post Falls subdivisions a big chunk of the southern edge. Elsewhere, residential developers are looking at mountain sides and wetlands.

Kootenai County stands at a crossroads. Without controlling growth and preserving the features that sustain its superb quality of life, the county will venture down the wrong path. In 20 years, the Rathdrum Prairie could be buried in houses and subdivisions, stretching from Post Falls and Rathdrum to Coeur d’Alene and Hayden – with one city melding into the next. Fortunately, local government leaders appear ready to try the other path, one that will require civic discipline, cooperation and creative financing.

For the second time since the turn of the century, local governments, civic leaders and community activists are changing their minds on an important environmental issue. The region’s view of the Spokane Valley/Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer – our sole source of drinking water – underwent a paradigm switch when power plants asked to suck a combined 20 million gallons of water per day from it. Now, local elected officials and planners have put away their rubber stamp and are scrutinizing tricky development proposals. Also, they are working together to preserve the prairie and such landmarks as Canfield Mountain in Coeur d’Alene.

Coeur d’Alene has dramatically strengthened its hillside development ordinances. Post Falls voters approved the purchase of up to 1,000 acres on the Rathdrum Prairie for land application of treated wastewater – and for open space. County Commissioner Dick Panabaker wants to use the half-cent local option tax to buy even more acres on the prairie for greenbelt purposes. Dalton Gardens is fighting a landowner who wants to spread upscale houses over the face of Canfield Mountain. The county turned down a hillside subdivision in the Hidden Valley area.

With the prairie losing 1,000 acres per year to development, local leaders are wise to crack down on haphazard development. Not everyone will like the push to preserve open space. But most Kootenai County residents will benefit from it.