Boating, water sports companies will operate from new docks near Cd'A's Harbor Center

COEUR d'ALENE — The city of Coeur d'Alene is moving ahead with a plan to build a water-based recreation facility just north of Harbor Center on the Spokane River.

Council members during Tuesday's council meeting voted 3-2 to accept proposals and enter into lease agreements with Hayden Lake Paddle Board and Jet Ski and KJ Watersports. Councilman Dan Gookin and Councilwoman Kiki Miller were the dissenting votes.

Per the agreements, the businesses will construct two commercial docks with 26 boat slips and pay the city $20,000 and $30,000 per year, respectively.

Although the businesses are private, the public will have access to the docks when renting boats or other water sports equipment. Private boats will not be moored at the docks.

Parks and recreation director Bill Greenwood said the docks will help alleviate the congestion of traffic at the Third Street boat launch, which he described as horrific. Regarding concerns about the docks bringing more boats to the water, Greenwood said the boats are already on the water.

Money from the leases will be allocated for repair and upkeep of Coeur d'Alene's parks, Greenwood said. He said one project the money will help fund is a new restroom at Person Field.

"Revenue is always good," Greenwood said Thursday. "It will go into the parks capital improvement fund."

The docks will be reached via North Academic Way, the road off Hubbard Avenue where the University of Idaho - Coeur d'Alene at the Harbor Center is located. The adjacent land contains a stretch of the North Idaho Centennial Trail, which cuts across Academic Way. A few railroad relics remain, as well.

Docks were once in place where the two new docks will be installed. A seawall is already on site. Greenwood said he helped take the last pieces of the old dock structure out when he started with the city in the late 1990s.

"It was a pretty active marina," he said.

The new docks are the first phase of a Bureau of Land Management master plan that was mapped out for the city about seven years ago. Greenwood said the area is supposed to also have a parking area and a pavilion as well.

"This is a first step to fulfilling that vision whenever we adopted that plan, in 2015 or 2016," he said.

Boat traffic from these docks will be directed to Lake Coeur d'Alene rather than the Spokane River, which already experiences congestion and wake issues.

Councilwoman Christie Wood, who advocated for the project, said this is a good opportunity to redirect commercial activities that are taking place at the Third Street launch, but aren't supposed to be.

"This seemed like a good fix that we could move that out of city center out to an area that makes much more sense,” Wood said. “These commercial entities give us the opportunity to use this beautiful lake. We all live here and we all want to be a part of it."