Parked it, indeed
BRIAN WALKER/Press This county-owned lot in the McGuire Estates subdivision was intended to be a neighborhood park, according to documents filed in 1976, but it has become an area for burn piles and vehicles for the immediate neighbors instead.
Kootenai County land records from 1976 indicate the McGuire Estates subdivision in the Post Falls area was intended to have a neighborhood park, but the county-owned parcel was never developed as such. A neighbor recently complained to the county that the lot can be an unsightly catch-all with burn piles and vehicles before county staff realized it is county-owned. (BRIAN WALKER/Press)
By BRIAN WALKER
Staff Writer
POST FALLS — Sometimes all it takes is a mention to dust off deserted decades-old documents.
When a resident of McGuire Estates recently went to Kootenai County to complain about junk in a common area behind his Post Falls-area home, it uncovered 42-year-old land documents that pointed to the county as being the owner, unbeknown to current staff who all started at the agency long after the subdivision paperwork was filed in 1976.
The revelation now has the county’s Community Development Department and legal staff searching for how to best settle the dilemma in the 21st Century.
The land that’s just under an acre was originally intended to be a neighborhood park, according to county records, but it was never developed as such, leading to the burn piles, encroachments with vehicles and a summertime weed patch in the triangle-shaped parcel of today.
There are two grass pathways leading into the area, but they are not defined and a driveway now covers a portion of one of those pathways.
Community Development Director David Callahan said he believes changes in county employees over time tells part of the story of the once-forgotten, but now rediscovered county land off McGuire Road near the Spokane River.
"There is also the difference in the times and the vision of the leaders of the time," he said. "This particular park is what you would typically see in an urban setting, and in which either a city parks department or a homeowners association would be responsible for running.
"It may have been that way in the ’70s when this plat was approved, then staff and commissioners thought that the county would in fact be taking this on as a regular county-maintained park. Perhaps it was a prototype for what was going to be a trend that just never materialized."
Callahan said he doesn’t believe such a situation could take root today and be discovered in the future.
"Our planners would bring it up during the review process, and we would ask that either an HOA be established as part of the subdivision or that the park not be created unless there was a designated entity with the ability to be fully responsible," he said.
Doug Brubaker, whose elderly mother lives in McGuire Estates, shares in the mowing duties of the lot out back with a neighbor.
"It can be a pain because of the weeds and it’s not getting watered," he said. "It looks unsightly if you don’t keep caring for it. We need to mow it so it’s not just a fire hazard. I look at it as a possibility for a nice park for the kids in the neighborhood."
But Brubaker said it can also be a case of being careful about what you wish for. What he doesn’t want to see is a high volume of traffic, because it isn’t a large area, or a nighttime gathering spot for teens.
That’s why he reverts to the status quo as not being so bad after all. Wildlife, including a bobcat, have passed through the parcel, he said.
"(The lot) is not a very big problem to start with," he said.
There are nine homes that surround the parcel, but county officials believe the lot was intended to be open to the entire neighborhood.
Kootenai County Parks and Waterways Director Nick Snyder said he’s not interested in the lot being a county-maintained park.
"I reviewed the property and find that, of all the properties the county could choose to expend resources on to develop for the benefit of the public, I would not recommend this particular parcel to the commissioners," Snyder said.
He also said his staff is already busy with existing parks and current recreation projects.
Still, commissioners have asked staff to rectify the situation by talking to the neighbors, possibly transferring ownership or selling the parcel or exploring other avenues.
"We should be obligated to maintain it if we own it," Commissioner Bob Bingham said.
Commissioner Marc Eberlein added: "We need to get our ducks in a row, then see what we’ve got."