Waterford Park Strikes Out

At a recent hearing before the Kootenai County Hearing Examiner, Waterford Park Homes, LLC was denied approval of a conversion from a commercial building next to the boat launch, to that of a residential condominium.

This project has long been a sore spot with local residents, who feel Bayview is becoming a "Company Town", owned and controlled by Bob Holland, owner of Waterford Park Homes, LLC.

The following points were raised by the examiner, as part of the recommendation for denial. Waterford Park has the option of appealing to the County Council, but it is believed that after so many egregious actions by the applicant, there probably won't be a friendly welcome there either.

.The property is currently zoned commercial and is not appropriate to be used as residential purposes.

.There is insufficient parking available for a residential condominium development.

.The development does not meet Americans with disabilities Act certification.

.This development currently has various Red Tags from the Kootenai County Planning and Zoning Department and the Idaho Department of Lands for development code violations and has proceeded with work on this development without required permits.

.It sits on the identified flood plain of Lake Pend Oreille.

This should drive a nail into the heart of a very unpopular developer, were it not for the fact that the community doesn't have the proper permit for that, either...

An interesting conjecture would be that now the building has gone through the construction for the conversion without permits, can it be then retro-constructed back to commercial, or would that permit be denied, too?

The moral of this story is that after buying, then throwing out mobile home owners in one park, and after having given eviction notices to another, creating several dozen homeless, the tight knit community of Bayview is outraged.

When I was in the service, we had an expression that fits here. "Don't pee in your own mess kit."