Council OKs luxury boat condo project

PRIEST RIVER — After an hour-plus hearing, council members voted to approve a conditional use permit allowing Two Rivers Landing to build two eight-unit multifamily residential buildings near the eastern entrance to Priest River.

The buildings, described by applicant Melissa Huffman as "boat storage with a little place to sleep for the weekend," were approved in a 3-0 vote. Councilors Candy Turner, Sandy Brower and Billy Mullaley voted in support of the move. Councilman Doug Wagner was absent.

Huffman said she and her husband, Mark, originally bought the property along with the adjacent site where they built the storage unit after their son was unable to find boat storage in the community. A nurse, she told councilors she was not a developer and came from a similar small town, coming up with the concept as a way to attract business but not detract from what made Priest River special.

"I love small towns," Huffman said. "I do not want to mess up the small town feel, and this whole plan is for people to do exactly what happens in my town. They come in, they're going to be paying property taxes but this is just a little vacation place."

She told the council the units were sparse with limited amenities and aren't intended to be lived in as a permanent residence. That said, she said she wanted the outside to present an attractive welcome to the community, featuring a mix of steel and wood. Trees existing on the property would be kept and maintained.

"I'm thinking 'What's good for Priest River,'" Huffman said of the genesis behind the project. "It's going to make this when you walk, when you come across the bridge, it's going to beautify it. It's going to, I want everything to stay natural, keep all the woods, but manage it.

She told the council the concept was to create a space where owners could store their boats but have a place to stay where they could land for a weekend or so, putting them in close proximity to city services. With limited boat storage options, Huffman said the idea made sense, adding she took care to create a "vacation spot."

"It's not an apartment complex," Huffman said. "It is just a convenience to have the option to spend the night. It's not a place to live."

Huffman said she came up with the idea while walking across the bridge and seeing paddleboarders and kayakers enjoying the water on the sunny day.

"I thought this looks so happy," she added. "That's what I want people to see when they come across there."

Luxury boat and toy condos are catching on across the country and region, noting Big Toy Condos construction in Sandpoint near the Bonner County Fairgrounds. Huffman said the plan is to complete the first phase this year and the second by next summer.

The 2.48-acre parcel is zoned commercial with frontage on U.S. 2 and access off the highway. The units, while they are considered residential, are more like "luxury boat storage" with a small kitchenette, laundry facility and bathroom allowing the condo owners to sleep overnight and head back out the next day, city administrator and planner Jake Gabell told the council.

Under the proposal, the units would contain boat storage on the ground level with an internal loft area allowing for a small kitchenette, a walled-in bathroom and open living area.

Critics of the plan questioned its potential use as an apartment building, saying the development would not fit in with the city if that happened. Others said the look of the building did not match the current aesthetic of nearby homes.

While public reception was critical of the proposal, agency reviews either had limited comment on specific aspects of the proposal, including a requirement by the Idaho Transportation Department for an encroachment permit to the highway and a requirement by the Idaho Department of Lands for a dock permit.

The dock would be private with use tied to the 16 units. However, because of state property-rights legislation, the units could be rented out or changed internally, city officials said.

Gabell said the city has detailed a number of conditions as part of the conditional use permit, including design, parking and utility requirements. The CUP also includes wetlands setback requirements and a review of final water and sewer plans, among other stipulations.

After the review, Gabell said staff didn't find anything in the CUP request that directly conflicted with any of the city's regulations or plans.

"Substantial changes" to the project would void the permit, with the CUP tied to the use requested in the proposal.

"Let's say they want to change it to industrial and now we're going to have a cabinet maker in one and a granite guy in another," Gabell said. "That's a substantial change to the use, right, so that wouldn't be allowed."

While the project met the city's requirements for storage units, the addition of the living area via the lofts triggered the need for a conditional use permit.

Gabell told councilors that the proposal was "generally consistent" with the 2013 Comprehensive Plan, which was in effect at the time the proposal was submitted and thus grandfathered to that document.