Opinion: McCall parries to IDL’s thrust on Cougar Island

BY DREW DODSON

This story was originally published in The Star-News in McCall on Thursday, July 21, 2022. It is republished here with permission.

After being forced for years to endure the insolence of the Idaho Department of Lands regarding local planning laws, the McCall City Council is now turning the tables on its land-use nemesis regarding IDL’s plans to sell Cougar Island on Payette Lake.

The city has long pleaded with the state to comply with city and county laws when discussing development plans for its massive holdings of state endowment land surrounding the lake. But the IDL and the state land board have offered little more than lip service to the city’s position, stating local zoning laws would be enforced on state land only if convenient and without costing the state money. Two recent examples were in 2018, when the state put sites on Deinhard Lane and Lick Creek Road up for lease for cellphone towers. City laws require cellphone towers to blend in with their surroundings using disguises such as artificial tree limbs, but the state waived that requirement when the tower builders said the cost of compliance would be too high.

Now the city gets to flip the script on the state over Cougar Island, the 14-acre site which was selected first on the list for the state to cash in on prime parcels in and around McCall. The IDL is advertising the upcoming auction with the implication that buyers of one or more of the four vacant lots on the island will be allowed to build a vacation home on the lot. The city, however, notes that once state land is purchased by a private party, the state’s claims of a zoning exemption are no longer valid and buyers could be stuck with a very expensive campsite.

Such a scenario would allow attorneys to make a lot of money, but otherwise has no value to the city, state or the public. The Idaho Department of Lands should admit the city has the upper hand and cancel the auction of Cougar Island. The agency then needs to face the reality that any future auctions of state land will encounter a similar situation. The IDL should then tailor the terms of each auction to match the planning laws in place and not suggest impractical proposals that can never be realized and which incur the wrath of disgruntled bidders on the state.