Legal groups oppose dock plan on river

Building 30 private docks at the Coyote Rock Estates on the Spokane River will damage spawning habitat for native redband trout, the Spokane Falls chapter of Trout Unlimited says.

Trout Unlimited and two other groups have appealed the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s decision to approve the first of 30 docks planned for the 60-acre Coyote Rock development, across the river from Arbor Crest winery’s Cliff House. The appeal says the department should consider the combined effect of 30 docks on redband trout habitat, instead of processing each dock application individually.

“If you carve out one dock at a time, it is easier to say there are no impacts,” said Rick Eichstaedt, who heads the Center for Justice’s Riverkeeper program. The center, a public interest law firm, is participating in the appeal, along with Gonzaga University School of Law’s environmental law clinic. The department would have preferred to see a community dock instead of 30 individual docks, said Jeff Lawlor, the agency’s habitat biologist. Agency officials made that suggestion to the developer, Neighborhood Inc. of Coeur d’Alene.

But from a landowner’s perspective, “it’s much less desirable to have a community dock,” said Cliff Mort, president of Neighborhood Inc.

People buying the waterfront lots, which start at $299,500, want the option of installing a private dock, he said. The company is trying to limit the projects’ impact by encouraging “floating docks with a small footprint,” Mort said.

Meanwhile, the development’s first dock was installed in violation of the department’s approved window for in-stream work, according to the department. Property owner Jim Dehaas of Invest Northwest was supposed to install the dock between June 16 and Aug. 31, but the dock is already in place, Lawlor said.

Dehaas has an unlisted number and could not be reached for comment.