Sanders Beach off-limits

Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial summer kickoff, and this year it marks the start of the first season that Coeur d’Alene’s popular Sanders Beach is off limits to the public.

Yet swimmers and sunbathers can still use the city beaches that flank both sides of the Lake Coeur d’Alene shoreline between 12th and 15th streets, with entry off 11th Street and in front of the Jewett House.

“We encourage the public to come down and enjoy,” said attorney Mike Haman, who represents Coeur d’Alene.

An Idaho Supreme Court decision last September ruled that the invisible line where private property ends and public land begins is no higher than the summer level of the lake, or an elevation of 2,128 feet.

That essentially eliminated all public access to the beach that has been used by locals for a century.

The ruling gave the city clarity in where private property begins so it can enforce trespass laws – the reason Coeur d’Alene and Kootenai County filed a lawsuit in 2004 asking a judge to determine the legal high-water mark at Sanders Beach.

No court had ever made the exact determination, causing annual disputes between property owners and people using the beach.

“I think it will be an uneventful summer,” Haman said. “Citizens know where they can recreate, and the police know where the line is to effectively and reasonably enforce the laws.”

Attorney John Magnuson, who represents the Sanders Beach property owners, said there’s no need to physically mark the line.

“It’s easily marked because it’s where the water is,” Magnuson said.

Yet the conflict surrounding Sanders Beach is far from over as five property owners have requested to build six docks along the shoreline.

First District Judge John Luster is scheduled to hold a June 13 hearing on the original dock proposal made by owner Jerry Frank.

Frank was the first property owner to request an encroachment permit that would allow him to build a dock extending 22 feet into the lake. The Idaho Department of Lands denied his dock permit. So now Frank is appealing the decision in court.

The state is postponing its decision on the other five dock requests until Luster rules on the Frank case.