Man sues over dock request

A Sanders Beach homeowner is suing the state of Idaho for rejecting a request to build a dock along the popular shore.

Jerry Frank filed the lawsuit in 1st District Court on Thursday against the Idaho Department of Lands and the state Land Board. He argues that the city of Coeur d’Alene had no right to object to the request for the 22-foot dock because it is not an adjacent neighbor.

Even though Frank listed the city as a neighbor on his Nov. 17 encroachment permit application, his attorney John Magnuson said Frank owns two separate lots. There is actually a lot between the city’s neighboring shoreline in front of the Jewett House off 15th Street and the lot where Frank wants to build the dock, Magnuson said.

Frank also argues that the state didn’t have a public hearing so he could refute the city’s “misstatements, mischaracterizations and untruths.”

Attorney Mike Haman, who represents the city, hadn’t yet seen the lawsuit but said Coeur d’Alene will likely intervene.

“He owns all the lots and treats all the lots (as one),” Haman said.

The Department of Lands rejected Frank’s permit request this month, stating that installing such a dock in a widely used swimming area would endanger the swimmers. The ruling was signed by Deputy Idaho Attorney General Nick Krema.

Krema wasn’t immediately available for comment Monday.

Besides viewing the dock as a safety hazard that would inhibit public use of the lake, the city protested that it wasn’t notified in a timely manner about Frank’s permit application and that there wasn’t time for a public hearing.

In rejecting the application, the state’s attorney compared the situation to a dock request made nearly a decade ago by a homeowner in front of City Beach on West Lakeshore Drive. The City Beach dock spat eventually made it to the state Supreme Court, which ruled the existence of a public swimming area is grounds for denying a dock permit.

Frank argues that the area in front of Sanders Beach is not an official swimming area and that the decade-old case only applies to West Lakeshore near City Beach, not the East Lakeshore of Sanders Beach.

Sanders Beach, like City Beach, is encircled by navigational buoys aimed at keeping swimmers safe.

Magnuson said the Sanders Beach buoys were made irrelevant by an Idaho Supreme Court ruling in September. Public access to Sanders Beach was restricted by the court, which unanimously ruled private property begins at the summertime high-water mark of 2,128 feet above sea level.