IDL pushes back decision on proposed Trestle Creek development to Oct. 30

By Soncirey Mitchell
Reader Staff

The Idaho Office of Administrative Hearings received testimony Sept. 6 from the Idaho Department of Lands, developers and the public about the proposed Idaho Club North Lake community dock, with 105 boat slips, near the mouth of Trestle Creek. 

At that meeting, Deputy Chief Administrative Hearing Officer Leslie Hayes stated that the IDL director would issue the final ruling no later than Oct. 23; however, that date has been pushed back to Monday, Oct. 30. The IDL did not indicate a reason for the postponement, nor did the agency respond to a request for comment by press time.

If approved, the project will involve excavating an island and dredging an existing boat basin — both of which are man-made.

Hayes issued her official recommendation to the director on Oct. 19, which stated that the IDL should grant the Idaho Club’s encroachment permit, provided that the developers meet five additional conditions to protect and enhance the riparian zone. Those mandates include using spill containment kits during construction, and operation and diverting the North Branch of Trestle Creek — as was already planned — before dredging and filling the area.

It also outlined the need for woody vegetation to protect the shoreline, specific testing protocols for the dredged materials and that “dirt and topsoil should be placed in the filled areas above the artificial high-water mark or used somewhere else as fill where it is not likely to erode back into Lake Pend Oreille.”

To listen to a recording of the Sept. 6 hearing, or to read Hayes’ recommendation or the final ruling on Oct. 30, visit idl.idaho.gov/lakes-rivers/administrative-hearings/trestle-creek-public-hearing.