Council lauded for battle over beach

Coeur d’Alene residents lined up Tuesday night to applaud the City Council for trying once and for all to figure out who owns Sanders Beach.

And that means not giving up on a lawsuit asking a judge to determine the ordinary high-water mark on the popular sandy shoreline between 12th and 15th street. The high-water mark shows where private land ends and where publicly-owned water begins.

“We just would really like to say thanks for bringing this to a head,” Linda Jacquot told the council as her friends held yellow signs that read “We love Sanders Beach. Don’t Give it Away” and “My Family Has Loved Sanders Beach for OVER 50 years.”

After the public meeting, the council met in a closed-door executive session to discuss one state attorney’s recent response to the lawsuit filed in October by the city and Kootenai County. The council made no decisions about how to respond to the letter from Deputy Attorney General Steven Schuster who represents the state Department of Lands.

Schuster’s letter stated that in his opinion the individual property owners between 12th and 15th streets own the beach above where Lake Coeur d’Alene laps at the sand during the summer, which is 2,128 feet. And that means the public has no right to use the popular beach as locals have for a century.

He recommended that the state Land Board disclaim the title of the beach above 2,128 feet. Schuster said the state already views that land as private property and the Land Board would just be clarifying the point.

The Land Board hasn’t yet taken any official action and its January meeting has been canceled because of the busy start to the 2005 Legislature.

Councilmen Ben Wolfinger and Ron Edinger told the audience crowded into City Hall that the letter just reflected the opinion of one attorney and wasn’t the official stance of the Land Board. They said the city must move forward with the lawsuit and have a court make an official determination of where the high-water mark is located.

“Let’s find out once and for all who that property belongs to,” said Edinger, a former mayor who has been on the council 32 years. He added that Sanders Beach has been an issue his entire tenure and that the city should push the lawsuit even if it goes to the Supreme Court.

“I would like to go out of office in a few years and know this issue has been settled.”

The lawsuit names the Sanders Beach property owners between 12th and 15th streets, the Sanders Beach Preservation Association – which advocates for public access – and the Department of Lands – all parties that have a stake in the location of the high-water mark.

Two of the landowners named in the lawsuit said that their mission isn’t to limit public access to the beach but to get the city to deal with troublemakers.

Robert Cliff, who moved to Sanders Beach in September, said he felt like “Mr. Tooth Decay” speaking after a group of children holding signs favoring public access to the beach.

“Our intentions aren’t to keep these kids off the beach,” Cliff said. “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s the meth heads and kids drinking until 5 a.m. that’s at issue.”

Wanting to stop the Land Board from taking any action, such as disclaiming title to about 10 feet of sandy beach, the Sanders Beach Preservation Association recently filed a motion asking for a preliminary injunction.

Copies of the association’s recent filings weren’t available Tuesday at the Kootenai County Courthouse because Judge Charles Hosack had the file and his clerk didn’t return phone calls.

Sanders Beach Preservation Association Attorney Scott Reed also wasn’t available for comment but said last week that the state is “abandoning” any interest it has in Sanders Beach without making any determination about the location of the ordinary high-water mark. To him, that means the state is breaching the public’s trust by potentially giving up 10 feet of public land. Reed contends that the high-water mark is at 2,138 feet – evidence he has presented as part of the lawsuit.

Hundreds of shivering people filled Sanders Beach New Year’s Day for the annual Polar Bear Plunge. The association used the annual celebration as an opportunity to sell T-shirts and gather more than 300 signatures that were sent to Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, who sits on the Land Board, other Land Board members, Mayor Sandi Bloem and the City Council.

City Attorney Mike Gridley couldn’t comment on the specifics of what the council discussed in its closed-door meeting.

“Like any lawsuit, letters are written, ideas exchanged,” he said before the meeting. “It will take time to evaluate that.”