Judge rules beach area privately owned

COEUR d’ALENE — A local highway district was given a hands-off order by a Coeur d’Alene judge who said the highway district had no right to charge launch fees on property it did not own.

Boothe Park is a quiet nook on the north side of Lake Coeur d’Alene with access via south Boothe Park Road from east Coeur d’Alene Lake Drive, a busy roadway connecting the city with Higgens Point.

Although the Eastside Highway District maintains the main road as well as south Boothe Park Road, and has ownership of the small, sun-splattered park with its gravel lot and lake view, a Coeur d’Alene judge ruled the highway district — and Kootenai County before it — has no lake access at the site.

Lake access at Boothe Park, approximately 150 feet of shoreline, is privately owned, according to a ruling this past week by Judge Lansing Haynes.

In a seven-page verdict that outlines the history of the property going back to the early 1900s, Haynes said the highway district had ownership of the property known as Boothe Park, but that the district’s ownership did not include the lakeshore property, including a boat ramp, which belongs to the Delavan family.

“Boothe Park Road as it existed in 1949 did not reach the meander line of Lake Coeur d’Alene,” Haynes wrote in his verdict. “And did not continue past (Delavan’s) driveway.”

The Delavans, who own the adjoining marina, were the defendants in the lawsuit that was filed by Eastside Highway District. The district sued over a property boundary, and the ownership of the launch built by the Delavans in the 1950s and open to the the public by permission.

Greg Delavan said his grandfather, who built the marina, and his father kept the launch open to the public, and he has continued the tradition, despite a push by the county and the highway district to claim the launch and a section of his property along the park.

“I’m happy to keep it open to the public,” Delavan said. “I want to honor what my grandfather and dad honored.”

The dispute, going on for 15 years, was settled with the judge’s decision June 20, which prohibits the county from charging fees at the launch and reinforces Delavan’s property line.

“I am happy to share it,” he said. “I didn’t want them to steal it from me.”

The highway district and the county parks and waterways could not be reached Friday for comment.