COEUR d'ALENE - Organizers and supporters of the planned Diamond Cup hydroplane races this summer dominated testimony at a public hearing Tuesday night.

The Idaho Department of Lands conducted the hearing to gather public comment as Diamond Cup organizers seek permitting for races planned for Labor Day weekend on Lake Coeur d'Alene, and also for the summers of 2015 and 2016.

Organizers want to deploy 100 large concrete ecology block anchors to support a spectator boat tie-up area, temporarily deploy more than 60 smaller anchors to support race-course buoys, and permanently install 14 steel pilings to hold hydroplane pit docks and barges.

The department now will render a decision within 30 days.

"We don't have anybody here from the city of Coeur d'Alene really speaking in opposition of this," said attorney John Magnuson, who represents head hydroplane race organizer Doug Miller and the Diamond Cup group.

Magnuson said the organizers are trying to make Diamond Cup a quality event, address concerns people have about the races, and turn it into an economically viable event.

"Doug Miller's got five years into this," Magnuson said. "As much as he is civic-minded, he somewhat would like to get paid, I assume one day."

Magnuson also argued that Diamond Cup has no more effect on the public's use of the lake than the Coeur d'Alene Ironman triathlon.

Roger Blackstone, the Lake Coeur d'Alene Anglers Association club chairman, said he has no problem with the hydroplane races now that ropes from the 2013 races were removed and anglers aren't snagging them anymore.

He said the design for future race-course buoys and lines won't affect fishermen.

"I've been reassured that this new system and new engineering that they've done will have these cables, unlike ropes, laying on the floor of the lake" after the races conclude each year, he said. "So there's no real concern with fisherman."

Ed Muehle, a Coeur d'Alene resident and a volunteer at last summer's races, said he supports the hydroplane races so kids today can enjoy the type of races he enjoyed in his younger years.

Miller and Diamond Cup committee member and creditor Keith Kroetch spoke in favor of the permit, as did Doug Knight, of Knight EZ Dock, which Miller identified as a primary sponsor of the event. Doug Knight's name is on the permit application, along with Miller's. Two others also testified in favor of permit approval.

"This event is great for the community; the idea that birds up in the mountains don't like the race is ludicrous," Kroetch said. He said the hydroplanes don't put any fuel in the water.

Opposing the permits was Coeur d'Alene attorney Scott Reed and Kootenai Environmental Alliance board president Janet Torline.

Reed said in the mid 1980s, Coeur d'Alene residents voted overwhelmingly against future hydroplane races.

"We have succeeded in keeping the races from the front yard in Coeur d'Alene," Reed said. "What is sought here is to place the race in the back yard. The location is a poor choice."

There isn't enough room on Silver Beach for all the people the hydroplane races are projected to attract, Reed said.

"As overseers of our public waters, every application that you approve transfers the stewardship and the well-being of our public waters to those applicants," Torline, a Harrison resident, told a department staff member. "I think this applicant has proven that they are unworthy of this application permit."

She pointed to debts and legal troubles the Diamond Cup organizers have yet to resolve.