By RALPH BARTHOLDT

Staff Writer

A longtime North Idaho marine contractor has hit the stormy waters of opposition as he tries to get a zone change approved for a loading site in Wolf Lodge Bay.

John Condon, owner of North Idaho Maritime, has towed logs, barges teetering with lake homes, and docks.

Lots of docks.

And the sailing has been mostly smooth.

But Condon’s waterborne enterprise — he has operated NIM for 15 years — has recently hit some ground swells as it faces opposition from county residents and an environmental group who don’t want Condon to build a bulkhead on a half-acre peninsula he owns along Highway 97 at Wolf Lodge Bay on Lake Coeur d'Alene.

The Kootenai Environmental Alliance says commercial activity at the far southeast corner of the bay will upset eagle activity and kokanee spawning, as well as hiking at Mineral Ridge, which overlooks the small peninsula. The organization wants a Kootenai County hearing examiner to recommend denying Condon’s request to change the zoning on his land from restricted residential to commercial. The case will be considered Thursday.

“This area of the lake is a primary spawning bed for kokanee salmon and feeding site for bald eagles,” Russ Hersud and Dennis Brueggemann of the KEA wrote to commissioners.

The bay is too shallow for barges, and access to Condon’s property onto a narrow, winding Highway 97 is unsafe, according to the letter.

Neighbors, including Jane Fink and Stanley Harrison, also oppose the zone change.

Harrison, who grew up and still lives on nearby Wolf Lodge Bay Road, said the zone change does not fit into the county’s comprehensive plan. If approved, he said it would promote a private interest over the public’s interest.

“How does spot zoning not encourage a foot in the door for further commercial and industrial type activities in this beautiful area …?” Harrison wrote in a letter to the county.

Fink, a well-known raptor biologist, owns almost 100 acres of commercial property adjoining the Condon property. Fink’s land stretches north and includes part of the hill on the north side of I-90, and the former location of the once-iconic Fish Inn restaurant, as well as submerged land and shoreline. The zone change would have a detrimental effect on tourism and wildlife, including eagles and kokanee salmon, Fink wrote to the county.

Fink’s property has a pier and a breakwater. It has for several years been advertised for sale as “one of a kind commercial acreage with many possible uses,” according to realtor.com.

Because his 107 acres is already boxed in by commercial zoning — Camp Coeur d’Alene adjoins his property to the east — Condon said he’s perplexed by the opposition to the zone change.

“We’re not building,” Condon said. “All we’re looking for is a place for a bulkhead to offload.”

North Idaho Maritime keeps its tugboats at Blackwell Island in Coeur d’Alene, stores docks at Cougar Bay, employs 24 and operates from a Huetter Road address. The business also does work on Hayden Lake and throughout Idaho and Washington, including river and lake shore remediation, levee repairs, ice breaking, dock storage and repairs as well as transporting materials and equipment to lakefront properties.

Planner Rand Wichman, who applied for the zone change on behalf of Condon, said the half-acre peninsula would be used in the summer months as water depth allows for North Idaho Maritime to load and unload materials from its barge.

Because Avista draws down the lake incrementally after Labor Day, the northeast end of Wolf Lodge Bay is a mudflat in late fall and winter and not accessible by boat or barge for much of the year.

In the summer months, however, the half-acre parcel, part of 107 acres owned by Condon and his wife, Gaila, would serve as a loading site.

“We’re making that land to water connection,” Wichman said. “Those sites aren’t readily available anymore.”

The Idaho Transportation Department has signed off on the plan to use Highway 97, and so has Idaho Fish and Game. Chip Corsi, IDFG regional supervisor, said in an email to the county that the proposal would not affect kokanee spawning habitat.

“The bottom substrates are primarily fine sediments,” Corsi said. “… It would be outside of the area kokanee use for spawning. The mud flat is used quite extensively by eagles during the time period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s for feeding and loafing. The eagles also use the timber across the road, and trees at the site, for perching. Depending on the depth of the bay at that site, it may not float a barge during the winter drawdown.”

If the zoning is approved, Condon would still have to apply to Idaho Department of Lands to make changes to the peninsula, such as shoring up a bulkhead there, as well as for the use of the bay for commercial enterprises.

The public hearing begins at 6 p.m. Thursday in Room 1 of the Kootenai County Administration Building, 451 Government Way in Coeur d’Alene.