BOCC approved modifications to CUP for Idaho Club marina

By Soncirey Mitchell
Reader Staff

In a land use hearing Nov. 12, members of the Bonner County board of commissioners approved modifications to an existing conditional use permit for property adjacent to the mouth of Trestle Creek — a lateral move for the development, which has been in the works by the Idaho Club since 2008. 

The modifications reduce the overall scale of the development by Valiant Idaho, LLC and Valiant Idaho II, LLC, which includes seven single-family dwelling units and an 88-slip public marina.

The Idaho Department of Lands previously approved an encroachment permit for the development of a 105-slip community dock for the housing development, which initially consisted of 13 townhouses, 83 condominium units, a pool, boat storage, a community terrace and gazebo.

Developers could apply for a community dock under Idaho Code because they owned three lots adjacent to the water; however, they subsequently sold one 5.8-acre parcel below market value to the Kalispel Tribe, to be held in conservation in perpetuity. The parcel contains the final quarter mile of the main branch of Trestle Creek.

After the sale, developers proposed the 88-slip commercial marina, holding at least 50% of the slips for members of the public not associated with the Idaho Club. The reduced proposal includes corresponding docks for each dwelling unit, a breakwater, a pedestrian bridge, a boat bilge pump-out station, a 46-space parking lot and boat storage. It further replaced a proposed “common recreational lot” and turnaround with two single-family residential lots, necessitating “less than a 10th of an acre” of fill for the entire project, according to Whiskey Rock Planning + Consulting Owner — and Sandpoint mayor — Jeremy Grimm, who represents the developers.

The proposal also includes the preservation of several artificial islands — one of which includes an eagle’s nest — and the removal of existing rotting boat docks and boat ramp, as well as a culvert, known as the North Branch Outlet. Developers argue that the removal will redirect juvenile bull trout back into the creek’s main branch, which is deeper, more oxygen-rich and farther from shallow-water predators.

Despite this redirection, community members and conservation groups have spoken out against the development, arguing that boat and human traffic, potential pollution, and the dredging and fill needed to complete the project will negatively affect nearby bull trout and kokanee salmon habitat. Bull trout are listed as threatened in all of their known habitats — including Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington — and are protected under the Endangered Species Act. According to the Idaho Conservation League, more than half of the Pend Oreille Basin’s bull trout population spawns in Trestle Creek.

Though the two members of the public who spoke at the Nov. 12 meeting opposed the development as a whole, the commissioners could consider only the proposed modifications to the existing CUP.

“We are not here today to re-review the previously approved applications,” said Bonner County Planner Jason Johnson. “They were approved years ago. The appeal period is long expired.”

Further, both Williams and Grimm explained that voting against the modifications did not affect the existing CUP.

“We just humbly request support for this modification and the recognition that this is an approved project, and failure to support the modification means approval of the project that is [of] greater intensity and would mean removal of islands and related elements,” said Grimm.

“Since this project has been altered so extensively since the previous approval, it must only be considered now as a new application,” argued ICL North Idaho Director Jennifer Ekstrom. “I also want to emphasize that the modifications that have been discussed today do not alleviate our extensive concerns about impacts to natural resources, including water, floodplain, wetlands, shorelines [and] endangered species, nor do the modifications alleviate our concerns about the project’s compliance with the law.”

According to Grimm’s presentation, the developer has applied for and received “all federal and state environmental permits and clearances” necessary to continue with the project, including:

• The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under Clean Water Act Section 404 permit; 

• National Environmental Policy Act Review by the Corps, with a letter of concurrence from U.S. Fish and Wildlife; 

• USFWS eagle nest disturbance permit, which is not actually required;

• U.S. Coast Guard bridge permit exemption;

• Idaho Department of Environmental Quality Clean Water Act Section 401 water quality certification;

• IDEQ Clean Water Act Section 402 national pollutant discharge elimination system general permit coverage;

• Idaho Department of Lands encroachment permit for marina and shoreline protection;

• Idaho Department of Water Resources stream channel alteration permit.

“Idaho Conservation League has recently heard from Panhandle Health District, indicating that they had not yet approved a community sewer system for this project,” said Ekstrom.

“Regarding Panhandle Health — the drainfield site was preliminarily approved, and wastewater plans and specs have been approved by DEQ,” said Grimm. “Anything regarding that has been addressed by DEQ — the jurisdictional authority there.”

PHD Communications Office Katherine Hoyer told the Reader that the health district has a “shared role with DEQ in the review and approval of the wastewater system.”

“When you look at this change [to the CUP], it is a reduction in all of the other footprints,” said Williams. “That’s really what they’re asking to do is to reduce their exposure. I can’t go into, ‘Are they doing this for a good reason, a bad reason?’ None of that matters.”

Williams and Commissioner Ron Korn approved the modifications in a 2-0 vote, with Commissioner Brian Domke absent.

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Dec. 8 correction: In the original version of this article, PHD Communications Officer Katherine Hoyer told the Reader that the wastewater system for the Idaho Club’s Trestle Creek project is regulated by DEQ and PHD “does not have any involvement with the review or approval of that system.” Hoyer sent Reader an updated statement Dec. 4, saying, “The Panhandle Health District does have a shared role with DEQ in the review and approval of the wastewater system intended to serve the Idaho Club Trestle Creek project, but does not have jurisdiction in the public wastewater and drinking water systems that serve the nearby Idaho Club golf course development.”