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Bellevue man closes on Cougar Island
Star-News, 12-15-22
The Bellevue attorney who bid on a Cougar Island lot during a September auction paid $2.1 million to complete the sale by yesterday’s deadline, according to the Idaho Department of Lands.
Jim Laski, who owns a home on a 2.5-acre lot on the 14.2-acre island in Payette Lake, was required to pay $2.1 million to the lands department.
“I’m relieved that its finally over,” Laski told The Star-News on Monday, declining further comment.
The $2.1 million paid by Laski will be deposited into a fund that can be used to buy other lands for use as endowment lands, said Sharla Arledge, a spokesperson for the lands department.
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Payette Land Trust helps close Cougar Island sale
Star-News, 12-15-22
The Bellevue attorney who paid $2.1 million to buy a lot on Cougar Island in Payette Lake sold development rights for the land to the Payette Land Trust to help complete the sale.
A conservation easement purchased by the land trust permanently bans a home on the 2.5-acre lot from being used as a short-term rental, as well as other commercial development.
Payette Land Trust Executive Director Craig Utter declined to disclose the amount paid for the easement, but said it was funded by private donors and donations to the land trust.
“Our goal was to prevent this property and its infrastructure from becoming anything other than a single-family residence,” Utter said.
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‘Our easements are forever’: Land trust, homeowner team to conserve part of Cougar Island
Idaho Statesman, 12-13-22
Months after the state auctioned a parcel of endowment land on a rugged McCall island and the winning bidder put the property on the market, an Idaho land trust announced it has conserved the land “in perpetuity.”
In September, the Idaho Department of Lands held an auction for five parcels comprising Cougar Island, the largest island in Payette Lake. The parcels were longtime Idaho endowment lands — state-owned properties that the Idaho Constitution designated to provide revenue for public schools. That revenue can be earned through rentals, sales, leases or other contracts on the endowment lands.
The auction drew backlash from members of the conservation community who hoped to preserve the island. But on auction day the sole bidder was Jim Laski, who had already owned the solitary home on the island for a decade.
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No changes on McCall’s Cougar Island after new conservation easement put in place
BoiseDev, 12-12-22
Cougar Island in McCall will stay unchanged with a new conservation deal, which follows an auction process earlier this fall.
Back in September, the Idaho Department of Lands held a public auction for five lots on Cougar Island where only one property received a bid. The bidder was the owner of the sole home on the island and the lessee of the over 2-acre lot, Jim Laski of Bellevue, Idaho. When sold, the land moved to private ownership.
Laski leased the land from the Idaho Department of Lands endowment but owned the house on the property House. As BoiseDev reported at the end of September, Laski listed the home and property for sale for $3,777,750. The listing is no longer up, and according to the Valley County Clerk’s Office, Laski closed on the home December 8.
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Idaho family closed purchase on a portion of Cougar Island with an in-perpetuity conservation easement
BSU Public Radio News, 12-12-22
Conservationists say the future of Cougar Island on Payette Lake is a now bit more secure.
"It's a huge win for Payette Lake. It's a huge win for the West Central Mountains of Idaho. It's a huge win for conservation in Idaho itself," said Craig Utter, executive director of the Payette Land Trust. "It just shows what you can do when you come together as a community and everybody gets to play a part in it."
Just over 2.5 acres of Cougar Island near was auctioned off this past fall to a family which had been leasing a cabin for years on the then-state-owned land. The selling price for the lot was more than $2 million; even the winning bidder indicated that the family would have to get creative in order to close on the property.
With very little time left before a deadline and with significant financial help from the Payette Land Trust, the now-owner of the land closed on the property on December 9, 2022. And with that closing, came a historic conservation easement.
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