Cd'A City Council settles Sanders Beach lawsuits

COEUR d'ALENE - Over and done with.

The Coeur d'Alene City Council agreed to settle six lawsuits with property owners near Sanders Beach once and for all on Tuesday.

The settlement allows the city to purchase a roughly 50-foot-by-70-foot beach front for $250,000 (appraised at $300,000) from Charles Wilke at the 12th Street end of the beach off East Lakeshore Drive. An additional 10 feet by 50 feet stretch is being purchased from Jerry Frank at the 15th street end for $25,000.

The deal ensures the beaches will be kept open for public use, said City Attorney Mike Gridley.

It also allows property owners to put up fences in those areas along private property adjacent to public land. Property owners won't be allowed to run fences between other private properties there.

The settlement ends decades of questions about property rights in that area that stretched back into the 1960s. Discussion about the particular deal came to the council in October 2010.