Hearing set on Rickel Ranch proposal

After a year of simmering, plans for a new town across from Silverwood Theme Park are getting warmer.

The first step toward building the largest housing development in Kootenai County is to change the county’s land-use map to allow urban development in an area reserved for rural use and timberland.

If the county approves the change, Spokane developer Dennis Swartout’s next move will be to get approval for 1,500 homes on the century-old Rickel Ranch near Athol, where cattle still graze some of the 900 acres.

The county Planning and Zoning Commission will have a public hearing on Riverside Development Co.’s proposal April 27.

The development would include a 35-acre park, 120 acres of forest and trails and maybe a five- to 10-acre, man-made lake. There’s also room for office and business parks and acreage for light industrial use.

At least one-third of the homes would be categorized as affordable housing, perhaps costing $125,000. Swartout compared the project to luxury golf course communities on the east side of Lake Coeur d’Alene. But instead of catering to the rich, Swartout said his project would target people struggling to buy a house.

In an interview Monday, Swartout said none of his plans will work if the county doesn’t change its land-use map to allow for the development – one that could become six times larger than Athol, four miles away.

His company has worked for a year to complete studies on traffic, sewer and affordable housing to answer swarms of questions from neighbors, county officials and government agencies.

That work is done even though the specifics of the development aren’t up for review.

One of the biggest questions has been how U.S. Highway 95 could handle an estimated increase of 11,732 vehicle trips a day. Swartout has proposed an $800,000 underpass to help traffic from the development and Silverwood access from Highway 95, which already is congested near the intersections of Bunco and Brunner roads.

To address sewer questions, Swartout’s company recently bought 160 acres of timberland just north of Bunco Road adjacent to the Silverwood parking lot. The development would have a sewer treatment plant that would use effluent to irrigate trees.

If the land were instead developed to the current standard of one house per five acres, Swartout said, that would mean putting 216 septic tanks over the aquifer.

The company also hired a consultant to study the true need for affordable housing in Kootenai County.

Many neighbors want the land to remain in five-acre lots.

“We aren’t trying to prevent them from developing,” said Bat Masterson, of the Cedar Mountain Association, which launched a Web site opposing the development. “We don’t like that, but that’s everyone’s right in Kootenai County to do that.”

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game also opposed the land-use change because the high-density development would destroy wildlife habitat and wetlands. The Lakeland School District is worried how it would handle the increase in students, even if the developers are willing to donate land for an elementary school.

Swartout said he isn’t apologizing for trying to prevent the endless sprawl of five-acre lots eating up the county and working to provide affordable housing.

“It’s not developers that cause growth, it’s maternity wards in hospitals,” Swartout said. “That’s where the growth is occurring. I think everybody has a right to live someplace.”