Bayview developer must tear down cafe, restore site

A Bayview developer who demolished much of a cafe without a permit has been ordered by Kootenai County building officials to tear down the whole building.

Vista Bay Cafe was built into the steep shoreline and extended over the water on Lake Pend Oreille. Current county codes, which require a 25-foot setback, won’t allow for a new building at the site, according to Building and Planning Director Scott Clark.

Developer Bob Holland of Waterford Park Homes was hoping to have the cafe remodeled into a clubhouse for boaters in time for the summer boating season. The county issued a stop-work order in March after crews tore the building down to little more than wood studs.

Holland only had a permit to remove the roof.

Because the building didn’t conform to current county codes, Clark said the building can only be remodeled if repair costs don’t exceed half of the building’s market value.

Plans submitted for the remodel indicated the proposed remodel would cost about 75 percent of the building’s $264,000 market value by the county’s estimate, according to a May 9 letter Clark sent to Holland.

Holland could not be reached for comment.

“This structure has been caused to be so dilapidated that is dangerous, a threat to public safety and welfare, unsafe, and unfit for human occupancy,” Clark wrote, “and as such that it is unreasonable to repair the structure and it must be demolished.”

Clark said the building’s proximity to the marina “has created an attractive nuisance.”

Holland was ordered to remove the remainder of the building and restore the site.

The county is asking Holland to submit a plan detailing a proposal for demolition and remediation by June 6. If he doesn’t comply, the county will do the demolition and put a lien against the property, Clark said in the letter.

Holland was given 28 days to appeal the decision.

The developer was fined $2,500 in 2007 for pounding pilings into the lake bottom without a permit and damaging kokanee spawning beds. Idaho Fish and Game estimated the loss to the lake’s fishery at more than $1 million.