Reconsideration of fence ruling sought

A property owner is asking the Idaho Supreme Court to reconsider its decision requiring him to remove a fence used to keep the public off Sanders Beach.

In a 3-2 decision, the court ruled last month that the chain-link fence Jack Simpson erected in 1997 violates Coeur d’Alene’s shoreline law, which prohibits structures 40 feet from the high-water mark.

Coeur d’Alene attorney John Magnuson said that the dissent by two justices shows that the decision is “far from certain” and that the court should reconsider its ruling.

If that fails, Magnuson said Simpson is willing to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Magnuson argued that the city’s law has reduced the value of the shoreline property.

The Idaho Association of Realtors filed a friend-of-the-court brief this week stating that the decision “unnecessarily threatens future sales, purchase and transfers of real property.”

The court’s ruling declared that the city wasn’t taking Simpson’s land or reducing the waterfront property’s value by requiring the fence to come down.