Commissioners to decide on Powderhorn Bay today

The fate of a proposed luxury golf community on the southeastern shore of Lake Coeur d’Alene will be decided today by Kootenai County commissioners.

If commissioners approve a zoning change for the land above Powderhorn Bay, upward of 1,300 new homes could be built. Much of the land is zoned for agricultural and timber uses, but the developer wants the land classified as rural, which would allow more houses to be built.

The Seattle-based developer, Heartland, claims the land is no longer being farmed and is not viable for agriculture.

At a hearing Wednesday, opponents of the project said the land was farmed as recently as four years ago. They also presented evidence that the landowner has collected nearly $200,000 between 1995 and 2004 through the federal Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farmers to plant permanent vegetation on land susceptible to erosion.

Bev Twillmann said the land has been farmed as recently as 2002. Even though the land is now fallow, the CRP payments prove that the land has been used for agriculture, she said.

“It’s viable farmland,” Twillmann testified before commissioners. Twillmann and a coalition of neighbors are concerned the development would swamp the relatively undeveloped peninsula and the neighboring village of Harrison with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of new residents.

“We are not anti-growth,” Twillmann said. “We don’t oppose any developer that’s doing it in a responsible way.”

Heartland Managing Director Steve Walker said the crop payments were for only 280 acres out of 3,000 acres on the Powderhorn peninsula and amounted to slightly less than $11,000 per year. Ninety additional acres were added in 2001. Walker also said the payments show the land was better suited not being planted, but instead left alone.

Nearby resident Jim Moore testified against the zoning change, saying the land should remain classified as farmland. “The land is still fertile,” Moore said.