Animosity continues in Bayview

In Bayview, there’s no forgiving or forgetting.

Especially where Bob Holland is concerned.

When the developer’s donation of $1,000 toward the community fireworks show was announced at a Chamber of Commerce meeting in May, only a couple people clapped. Lesser donations received raucous applause.

“Other than Bob packing up and leaving Bayview, is there anything he could do that would make a difference to them?” Dennis Scott, development manager for Holland’s Waterford Park Homes, said Tuesday.

The developer’s troubles started with his first project in Bayview – remodeling a lakefront apartment building into condominiums. The project was red-tagged nearly 20 times.

Then crews working on Holland’s Harborview Marina stirred up silt that smothered kokanee fry in what Fish and Game described as one of the lake’s last healthy spawning beds.

In the months to follow, “No Bob” signs sprouted up throughout town, on bumper stickers and T-shirts. A grassroots group of locals formed a Development Analysis Committee that keeps tabs on Holland’s many projects in Bayview. They accuse the developer of not following the rules and when he isn’t breaking rules, bending them as far as he can or finding a way around them.

They also say the county is lax on enforcement.

Not true, says Kootenai County Building and Planning Director Scott Clark. He points to Holland’s Vista Bay project as an example of the county enforcing rules.

The county ordered Holland to tear down the Vista Bay Cafe after his crews demolished much of the building when a county permit only gave him permission to remove the roof. Scott says it was an “honest error” that stemmed from a miscommunication between Waterford’s consultant – a former Kootenai County building official – and the county.

“The building is coming down and it’s going to be removed,” Clark said. The county’s also requiring Waterford to restore the site to its natural state. A plan for remediating the site is in the works, he said.

County officials said in early May that Waterford must immediately put fencing around the site, along with no trespassing signs, because of safety concerns.

As of Monday, there were no signs and no fence. A picnic table and flower boxes were set up on the foundation where the building stood. Stan Deery, a committee member who lives at neighboring Vista Bay West, said he became worried after he spotted kids sitting on the benches and throwing rocks into the lake.

Scott said a 2-by-4 railing was installed to address safety concerns and that the county has approved of the current setup. Clark said a county inspector had visited the site and said “it is cleaned up and buttoned down.”

The foundation that remains will be removed once Waterford’s plan for remediating the site is submitted, Clark said. The deadline is July 11.

“This group that hates Bob Holland, they go out and visit our sites on a daily basis,” Scott said.

Committee member Dennis Damon said keeping an eye on Holland’s doings has become near a full-time job for members of the Development Analysis Committee, which was formed under the Bayview Chamber of Commerce. Damon and others take pictures of Holland’s projects, write letters and file complaints and testify against Holland’s projects at public hearings.

Scott says the Chamber of Commerce and its committee are anti-development.

Committee member Skip Wilcox – who lost his home in a trailer park that Holland bought and sold – said the committee isn’t anti-development. Wilcox said the committee has “bent over backward to try and deal with (Waterford).”

He says Waterford doesn’t give the committee “straight answers” and Wilcox said he and other critics of Waterford have supported other development in town.

“Right now the only developer we had problems with is Bob Holland,” Wilcox said.

Both sides agree there’s animosity, and it goes both ways.

Waterford has several projects in the works and the committee has concerns about every one.

Six triplexes and five duplexes are planned for Vista Bay, where Holland owns a marina. Though the county nixed plans to build a cafe/clubhouse, Waterford has approval to build a locker room with changing rooms, showers and bathrooms beyond the 25-foot setback from shore.

Deery and other neighbors in the development abutting the Vista Bay property are upset Waterford eliminated one access road to use as a building site for the condo project. There have been days that residents couldn’t get in and out while work is being done, Deery said. Clark said the county looked into one such complaint and determined access wasn’t being restricted.

The road that’s been removed wasn’t part of an easement and that the remaining gravel road will be paved and widened and in better shape than it was to begin with, Scott said.

Still, residents of Vista Bay West are worried the road won’t be wide enough for emergency vehicles and that there could be a bottleneck if residents needed to evacuate.

The units planned for the site will likely be two stories with a daylight basement, Scott said. Though Vista Bay West residents worry their lake views will be blocked by the condos planned for a site below their property, Scott said the units will be one to two stories above ground-level parking and shouldn’t block anyone’s views.

Though Waterford will have to cut into the hillside below Vista Bay West, Scott said Waterford is doing engineering studies to find out if it can be done and done so safely.

“We’re not just going and doing it without our due diligence,” he said.

The committee is also critical of Holland’s plans to build a parking garage in downtown Bayview. Scott said construction on the two-story parking garage, with 108 spaces, could begin this fall.

Before a rendering of the parking garage was even released, Scott said there were 90 letters of protest written.

Originally a three-story garage was planned with a tennis court and area for barbecues and community gatherings on the top floor, Scott said. He said the plans were scrapped because the garage would have required a variance and that the proposal go to public hearing.

Given the public opposition, Scott said Waterford opted to instead work within the setback requirements so the proposal wouldn’t go to public hearing.

Waterford is in the process of remediating another project that was recently red-tagged by county inspectors.

Scott said Waterford removed gravel from some waterfront RV sites and was found in violation of the county’s code prohibiting work within 25 feet of the lake. He said that was an instance where Waterford didn’t realize they needed a permit.

Most all of the outstanding issues involving Holland’s developments have been resolved, Clark said.

He said the code violations have been time-consuming for the county.

“We’re working to try and resolve these issues,” he said. “We’re hopeful that Mr. Holland and his development group is doing the same.”