Developer to submit new plan

Copper Ridge is back.

Quest Development plans to submit new plans today for a housing development on the lower region of Canfield Mountain.

This time the company won’t request a zone change or offer to donate any land to Coeur d’Alene for a public park. Quest attorney Steve Wetzel said the new proposal is for 38 homes clustered in a planned unit development on 49 acres at the end of Shadduck Lane. Even though the current zoning calls for one home per acre, Quest will ask for a variance to allow the homes to sit on lots smaller than one acre in exchange for more open space, Wetzel said. The current zoning would allow for 49 homes.

The proposal will include 33 acres of open space, which wouldn’t be open to the public.

“This new plan is kind of an insult,” said neighbor Jay Walden, a member of the opposition group Canfield Mountain Alliance. “They claim they are leaving (the zoning alone), but want a variance to put in smaller lots.”

Canfield Mountain Alliance hasn’t seen the final proposal, so Walden said the group couldn’t yet comment.

Quest’s first two proposals for Copper Ridge have been denied by the city – sparking public outcry for some way to preserve the property for public open space. Canfield Mountain Alliance presented the Coeur d’Alene City Council Sept. 21 with nearly 900 signatures of residents who are willing to pay increased taxes to buy open space such as Copper Ridge. The city is investigating how an open space preservation program could work.

On Sept. 14, the Coeur d’Alene Planning Commission rejected Quest’s plan to put 52 homes on the lower lands and donate the remaining 22 acres of steep, treed hillside to the city for a park.

The commission said Quest left too many questions unanswered leaving concerns about the density, access to the proposed park and plans for a service road that would have accessed a 500,000-gallon water tank. The commission also disliked that it was a proposed gated community with narrow streets and no sidewalks.