County tosses housing plan for Canfield

Kootenai County recently threw out Marvin Erickson’s controversial request to build homes on Canfield Mountain, because planners hadn’t gotten any new information for 19 months.

Erickson is appealing the decision, arguing that the county planning director has no grounds to boot the request and that the plan was revised in March when the number of lots was scaled back from 44 to nine.

Erickson’s attorney, Scott Poorman, said he thinks the county dismissed the request because it wants to force Erickson to build under the county’s subdivision rules that were adopted in December.

Poorman said those rules would make it more expensive for Erickson to develop the land surrounding his Canfield Mountain home. The stricter rules also may make it more difficult for Erickson to get county approval.

“This doesn’t feel like cooperation,” Poorman said. “It feels like retaliation.”

Erickson gained notoriety in 1999 when he built his house and a Z-shaped road up the face of Canfield. The proposed Erickson Estates development would use the same road.

A county hearing examiner recommended in May 2003 that Erickson should provide more information before another public hearing was scheduled. The checklist of concerns included stormwater plans, emergency access, roads, traffic congestion and environmental impacts on neighboring Dalton Gardens.

Neighbors, including the city of Dalton Gardens, opposed the project fearing that sewage from the 44 homes would run off the steep slope and pollute private wells.

Erickson has been working with consultants and engineers to get the information for the county and that’s why he has scaled back the project to nine lots on 14 acres, Poorman said.

“That was the motivation behind the changes,” Poorman said. “We were trying to reduce the impact from some of the original comments.”

Planning Director Rand Wichman said Erickson took too long to provide information and the revised plan is so different from the original plan submitted in 2003 that a new application is needed. Wichman said the revised plan would put homes in areas not included in the original draft.

“It’s not a modification,” Wichman said. “It’s a new application if you are subdividing different land.”

A county hearing examiner has 65 days to hear Erickson’s appeal for his planned unit development that includes plans for the nine homes. A district court judge will hear the appeal for the subdivision plan.

The Erickson Estates proposal is separate from three other housing developments Erickson has planned farther south on Canfield Mountain that, combined, would put about 30 homes on the hillside.

Erickson has given another developer an option to buy the 139 acres and may withdraw the requests for Mountain Crest Estates, Grand Vista Estates and Valley Vista Estates.