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Resort, riverside trail at state line approved

THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
John Craig
Published: Today

A resort along the Idaho state line, focusing on the Cabela’s sporting goods store, was approved this week.

Spokane County Hearing Examiner Michael Dempsey granted a conditional use permit for the 348-room Riverview resort and a controversial riverside trail.

The trail is to connect with one in Idaho that would lead to Cabela’s.

The 16-acre resort is to have three hotels, a restaurant that seats up to 125, a fast-food restaurant, a gasoline convenience store, an 860-square-foot espresso stand and four commercial lots.

Similar development is planned on adjacent land one of the developers owns on the other side of the state line. No construction date has been set.

The landowners and developers are Coeur d’Alene resident Alan Johnson, doing business as RiverView Stateline LLP, and Southern California resident Fernando Dutra, doing business as Border Investments.

Their Spokane attorney, F.J. “Rick” Dullanty Jr., said Johnson and Dutra were willing to build a public trail “to give something back” in return for permission to build the resort on rurally zoned land.

Instead, Dempsey limited the trail to resort guests.

A pedestrian lane on the new Appleway bridge, now under construction, will give resort guests access to the Centennial Trail.

Spokane County planners objected to the resort trail because the county Critical Areas Ordinance allows only public trails to run parallel to the river. The resort was entitled only to a private trail, according to Planning Director John Pederson.

Private trails are supposed to be more or less perpendicular to the river, providing access to a single point on the shoreline.

However, Dempsey decided the resort could have a shoreline trail to the nearby Cabela’s store because the site has historically been used for river access. He required a habitat management plan and other measures to restore and protect the trail area.

Pederson said he has no objection to that ruling.

The trail figured into recent discussions of a Critical Areas Ordinance amendment to eliminate provisions that prevent the Centennial Trail from being realigned or extended.

Futurewise and Spokane Riverkeepers, a program of the Center for Justice, worried that too broad an amendment would open the door to a hodgepodge of trails such as the one proposed for the Riverview resort.

The county Planning Commission sent county commissioners an amendment that maintains existing restrictions on private trails. Final action is pending.

Futurewise and Spokane Riverkeepers also objected that the resort doesn’t qualify as a “master planned resort,” the only kind that can be built outside an urban growth area. Such resorts are supposed to be tied to a “natural feature” such as a ski hill, not a sporting goods store, Futurewise spokeswoman Kitty Klitzke said.

“This project looks more like urban growth to us,” Klitzke said.

It’s not urban sprawl, though, Dempsey said. He noted the project abuts other commercial uses and “the populous city of Post Falls.”

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