Housing development plan stirs Dover debate

A slice of small-town charm and mountain lake scenery will be offered with each of the 535 units of a recently approved housing development in the tiny town of Dover, Idaho.

There will be no gates at the Dover Bay project, said developer Ralph Sletegar. In other high-end housing projects, security measures are used in an attempt to re-create the sense of a safe and friendly neighborhood.

“That already exists here,” Sletegar said.

Although the Dover City Council approved the project on a vote of 3-1 last week, council members must still work out a final development agreement with Sletegar. Some in the community continue to worry the project will destroy the very charms it intends to use to lure buyers.

“It will no longer be a rural community,” said Councilwoman Peggy Burge, who cast the dissenting vote. “It will be an urban community.”

But like many of those opposed to the plan, Burge admits it would be difficult to slow development in North Idaho’s hyper-charged real estate market. She also said the Dover Bay project has some advantages, including a new city hall and a public beach and park. The 285 acres could have been subdivided into smaller parcels with up to three homes per acre.

“Until zero population growth occurs, I don’t believe we’re ever going to stop things,” Burge said.

Burge’s largest concerns are over impacts of increased traffic and the perils of building on the Pend Oreille River floodplain. “I’m not convinced at this point that this is to the best benefit of the current and future residents of Dover,” she said.

Sletegar hopes to break ground this fall and have the first homes and condominiums ready next summer. Starting prices will be around $220,000, he said. A small commercial center also is planned for the project’s 270-unit marina, which has yet to be approved by state and federal regulators. The development will focus on water, Sletegar said.

“People from Dover can jump in the boat, come to town, go to a movie, dinner, Starbucks. I see it really being quite a complement to Sandpoint,” he said.

The marina will include a public dock, a boat launch and lots of walkways. Sletegar said he always envisioned public access as a cornerstone of the project. Part of this philosophy goes back to Sletegar’s childhood.

“I grew up here. My folks didn’t have lakefront. I went to the City Beach in Sandpoint,” he said. “I’ve often said no matter whether you’ve been here all your life or a day, you want to put a gate on that long bridge going into Sandpoint. Secretly you have that feeling, but it’s unrealistic. The folks are coming. The best thing we can do is preserve that sense of community we already have and public access to some of our treasures.”

About 3,000 feet of waterfront will be developed as a public beach. Critics say the area is swampy and that the best beach area is being set aside for private homeowners. City Councilman Neal Hewitt said citizens have no legal claim on the swimming beach. “It’s always been private property and everybody who’s gone out there, including myself, technically has been trespassing. We wouldn’t have had any public beach had we considered another development.

“Those parcels could have been sold off and developed into very high-density condos or homes … with no public access, no benefit whatsoever to the existing residents other than adding traffic and impacts on the infrastructure,” Hewitt said.

The project has support from many of the community’s longtime residents, who recall their town in its heyday as the site of a sawmill, Hewitt said. “Without the mill, there’s nothing really going on here. They look at it as an opportunity to bring some vitality back to the community.”

Some of the opponents of the project, including Perky Smith-Hagadone, are considering filing a lawsuit to stop the development. Smith-Hagadone said she did not yet want to discuss the basis of a potential legal challenge, but said her opposition is fueled by protecting the natural and cultural features of the land. Most of the land is in a floodplain and includes wetlands. Important tribal cultural sites also are on the property, she said.

“We are not opposed to development,” Smith-Hagadone said. “We are opposed to where this development is going to occur.”

Two acres of what Sletegar called “marginal wetland” would be turned into a road. In exchange, eight acres of wetland would be restored or created, he said.

Dover Mayor Randy Curless said his opinion on the project has not yet been formed. “The development agreement will start bringing out more of the good and bad of the process,” he said. “I have a hard time jumping on any bandwagon.”

Nearly a decade ago, the city shot down a development proposal for the same property that would have included almost twice the number of homes, Curless said. The earlier project also included gates.

“This is far preferable,” he said. “Dover’s always been an open community. It’s the kind of community where everybody looks after everybody else.”

The Dover Bay development is more in tune with local traditions of neighborliness, Curless said, but the project has created no shortage of controversy. “There’s a lot of people that have very strong opinions on both sides. We just hope it doesn’t divide the city.”