COEUR d'ALENE - The executive board of regional Boy Scouts voted in favor of pursuing a purchase option agreement with an Arizona developer on Wednesday, which could result in exchanging a historic Boy Scout camp for a new camp to be built at a different site.

The Inland Northwest Council's executive board vote tallied 24 in favor, six opposed and three abstaining to begin negotiations with Discovery Land Company.

"These (board members) that were there, they spent so much time investigating, meeting with people on their own, reading the 40 pages from the survey," said Scout Executive Tim McCandless, referring to a recent survey to constituents on the project. "This was the most comprehensive decision I've seen an executive board make."

If the INC's seven-member foundation board also votes in favor next Wednesday, that will green-light the Boy Scouts to work out the details of an agreement swapping the Camp Easton property on Gotham Bay for property on Sunup Bay, where Discovery has offered to build a new and better camp.

"Both boards have to approve (a proposed agreement)," McCandless said, noting that if they don't, the process will end and the scouts will stick with Camp Easton and its current site.

The second favorable vote would also kick off the process of determining whether Discovery, developer of the Gozzer Ranch golf and lake club, is truly capable of coming through on its offer of a $2.5 million endowment fund with the Sunup property and a new camp, McCandless said.

"That's a great question that has to be addressed," said McCandless, adding that the INC wanted to determine if the project was worth pursuing before delving into such details. "Now we're getting into the nitty gritty to address these concerns that are very valid."

Some doubts have been raised of Discovery's ability to provide the Sunup property in a land swap. Especially after Mountain West Bank, current owner of the Ridge at Sunup Bay property, filed a complaint against Discovery last year for breach of a $4.5 million purchase agreement on the parcel.

Carl Eaton, vice chair of the INC Old Mission District that encompasses Kootenai County, said he has heard passionate opposition against the proposal from folks devoted to the current camp, but he has also met folks in support of a new site.

Should the next vote be favorable, Eaton said he hopes to see evidence that the proposal is valid.

"So far, it's been all smoke and mirrors. We've not had a firm offer," Eaton said, adding that only guidelines for a new camp have been discussed. "Now we can get the facts on the table, see what we're looking at. I think a large percent of people in Kootenai County want to see the facts."

Some scout constituents and neighbors of the Easton property have created nonprofit Camp Easton Forever, Inc., which has filed a lawsuit against the INC that insists the Camp Easton property was donated with the condition of being used as a camp in perpetuity.

Eaton said his focus is on the opinion of the Boy Scouts themselves.

"That group by far is more of the sit back and wait and see," Eaton said. "Their attitude is, 'Let's look at the facts.'"