Good Gotham neighbors

Gotham Bay Estates was developed on a 160-acre parcel. The zoning and density would have allowed for over 300 lots to be built.Gotham Bay Estates was the first conservation subdivision in Kootenai County, with 56 of the 160 acres dedicated to conservation land and only 46 building lots.

This allowed room for animal habitat and room for the residents to walk and enjoy nature.Home owners in this project would be able to have a smaller lot yet enjoy the large open spaces without having to own and maintain a large property while retaining the North Idaho feel. Lot owners can purchase a boat slip from our community dock.

At the project start we removed all fences from the property; we did not want any fences on the property, however the existing fences of adjoining property owners had to remain. We were required to install a fence along our property line where Gotham Bay Estates joins the Boy Scouts Camp Easton property. This was due to the fact that Camp Easton has a shooting range and they wanted to prevent people from wandering into the firing area. We have worked closely with our neighbors the Boy Scouts, and donated hydro-seeding, grading, grinding of trees and shrubs in their path ways, and range areas as well as two war canoes and a zodiac inflatable boat and motor for their water safety program. Our dock is used by the Boy Scouts for their swimming programs, swimming from their dock to ours and back with lifeguards placed on both docks.

While building our interior roads for the subdivision, we created a rock pit that produced all of the rock and gravel needed to build them, over 60,000 tons. This eliminated the need to truck all of this rock over Highway 97 and Burma Road, saving about 4,000 dump truck loads of material in and 4,000 return trips. All onsite roads are paved, private but not gated and maintained by the Homeowners Association, so no county taxes are used.There are no trespassing and no hunting signs at all entrances. No hunting is allowed in the subdivision.

The property taxes were under $1,000 per year and increased to over $60,000 on completion. This helps pay for roads and schools. Only local companies and suppliers were used to build Gotham Bay Estates, which created jobs and poured millions of dollars into our local economy. We have rebuilt and paved Gotham Bay Road from Burma Road to the end of our property at Napili Road. This required moving power lines, telephone lines, water lines, widening it to 28 feet including shoulders, changing grades and curves. This was done at our expense without a latecomer's agreement.

No one along Gotham Bay Road or the surrounding area, or any agency paid any of the costs, nor will they, even if the property owners along Gotham Bay Road subdivide their property. We were only required to chip seal Gotham Bay Road but we paved it instead at a much higher cost but it made for a much better road. Again we created another rock pit that produced the rock and gravel, over 60,000 tons, needed to build Gotham Bay Road. This saved another 4,000 dump truck loads hauling material in and 4,000 return trips.

Some subdivisions drill wells on every lot for water. Gotham Bay Estates has a state of the art water system that uses only two wells to provide water for the subdivision with fire hydrants that provide protection for the subdivision. We have given East Side Fire District access to our property and fire hydrants for training sessions which they have used for the last two years. GPS Medivac landing locations are available on our roads for emergency air lifts when needed and supervised by East Side Fire District. Good neighbors are important. Our neighbors call us to report on things they see that we need to know. We help our neighbors as well. We have delivered water from our water system to a neighbor whose well failed and could not get water delivered in time, plowed out drives with heavy equipment when neighbors were snowed in and could not get out, pulled cars out of snow banks, lifted a fellow contractor's backhoe upright after it had slipped off his trailer and landed on its side.

Doug Anderson is developer of Gotham Bay Estates.