Development hearing likely to air conflict

Public discord over expensive new developments on the east side of Lake Coeur d’Alene is expected to surface Thursday night when Kootenai County commissioners hold a hearing on a proposal to build a French-themed golf community overlooking Moscow Bay.

The Las Vegas-based Kirk-Hughes Development Company wants to build a private golf course, 475 luxury condos and homes, a day spa, a dock, and a fitness center on the former 600-acre Flying Arrow Ranch, just west of the U.S. Forest Service’s Beauty Bay Campground.

Some neighbors, including a group calling itself Citizens for Responsible Growth, are against the development and plan to oppose its approval Thursday night. They argue that Chateau de Loire, as developers have dubbed it, will put too much burden on the already dangerous state Highway 97 and will spoil the area’s bucolic character.

Many residents believe the fate of Kootenai County’s rural areas will be determined by how county officials handle the controversial development, according to Citizens for Responsible Growth, Friends of Hayden and the Kootenai Environmental Alliance.

Chateau de Loire is just one of several luxury golf communities in the works on the east side of the lake.

The county last year approved Gozzer Ranch above Arrow Point.

The proposed Powderhorn development near Harrison would add an additional 1,300 homes and a golf course.

Elsewhere, high-end developments from Black Rock to Riverside near Athol, and from Hayden Canyon to the Rathdrum Prairie, are adding thousands more homes in rural parts of the county.

“Our beautiful rural areas are being gobbled up by the uncontrolled development taking place throughout Kootenai County,” said Phil Clements of Friends of Hayden, which opposes the proposed 1,800-unit development in Hayden Canyon.

“So goes our rural areas, so goes our quality of life,” he said.

A county hearing examiner recommended approval of Chateau de Loire in March, saying there was little difference between it and Gozzer Ranch.

As a condition of approval, the examiner recommended that the developers help pay for a study that will determine what improvements are needed for Highway 97 to accommodate the increase in population and how to pay for those fixes.

The examiner’s decision contradicted the county staff report that said Chateau de Loire’s proposal is “not a good fit” for the area.

County staff recommended the developer seek an amendment to the comprehensive plan, which is the foundation of all county land-use decisions, before moving forward with the subdivision proposal.

The development company initially asked for the comprehensive plan change but then revoked its request.

Project manager Brian Bills said the land has the proper zoning for such a golf course development and there is no need to change the growth plan.

The land-use plan designates the ranch as timberland and recommends against development.

The hearing examiner had disagreed with the staff report, concluding that no change to the land-use plan was needed.