Golf community plan hotly debated
Proponents of a 600-acre golf community at the Arrow Point ranch property overlooking Moscow Bay on the east of Lake Coeur d’Alene say development on the property is inevitable. And, they say, the proposal from the Kirk-Hughes Development Co. will respect the environment and benefit the community.
Opponents say the proposal is ill-conceived, based on greed and disrespect for the existing residents of the area and the surrounding lakeside environment. They contend it will cause serious traffic problems on Highway 97 that will go unmanaged.
More than 300 people packed the Kootenai County commission hearing on the proposal Thursday night, spilling out into the hallway and causing Commissioner Gus Johnson to ask if fire district officials might show up and ask people to leave.
No decision had been made on the proposal as of press time.
Staci Armes, a county planner, said the department has found the proposal to be “not compatible” with several areas of the Kootenai County strategic plan. She said the proposal won’t fit in with the rural area. She cited a June 21 letter the Idaho Transportation Department sent to the developers that stated concerns about the effects the proposal could have on Highway 97.
The letter asks the commission to hold off on approving the proposal for the French-themed community, dubbed Chateau de Loire by developers, until such concerns are met.
Project Manager Brian Bills said the company is working with an international consulting group that specializes in helping tailor golf and resort communities to fit the environment of the surrounding areas.
He stressed that the project will fit in well with the surrounding area, causing many in the crowd to burst into laughter.
“As you might have garnered by the outburst, this is probably the most contentious point,” Bills said, noting that “a very select number of neighbors and community residents” are leading the fight against the development.
Bills said that the letter from ITD asks the commission to hold off on final approval of the proposal until certain concerns, such as helping pay for a development plan for Highway 97, have been addressed.
“We have no issue with that statement,” Bills said, adding that the evening’s hearing was not a final approval hearing.
Laura Reese blasted the proposal as one driven by greed.
“This interesting but ill-conceived proposal serves the needs of everybody, it seems, but the residents of Kootenai County,” she said.
She spoke of the harmful effects the development, particularly the golf course, could have on Lake Coeur d’Alene.
“Coeur d’Alene lake is our treasure, yet the fact that golf courses suck water and discharge harmful nitrates from their fertilizers into the lake just doesn’t seem to be an issue with developers,” she said.
The Coeur d’Alene Tribe sent a letter stating their initial opposition to approving the project, which Johnson read aloud, and asking for a delay in the decision until tribal elder Felix Aripa can meet with the development company and discuss concerns about the effects on the lake and wildlife.
A county hearing examiner recommended approval of Château de Loire, saying there was little difference between it and the Arrow Point area development Gozzer Ranch.
Proponents of the development spoke of the upstanding character and good intentions of the developers. Many own property adjacent to the site of the proposed development and praised the company as one that listens to their concerns.
Gordon Longwell, of Hayden Lake, the architect for the project, said the process hasn’t been fair and that news reports have painted an unfair picture of the proposal and the company behind it. He noted that current zoning of the land allows for up to 940 residential homes, far less than the 475 proposed.
Said Jim Autry, former CEO of the PGA of America and the designer of the proposed 18-hole golf course: “They’re not a mass production organization going in to build, sell out and move on. … I’ve never seen a community that was better suited for golf.”