County passes on SilverWing settlement offer
SANDPOINT — Counsel for the developers of SilverWing at Sandpoint offered to settle its suit against Bonner County for $4.5 million, according to correspondence obtained by The Daily Bee.
County Commissioner Mike Nielsen, who is overseeing the litigation, acknowledged receiving the offer, which expired at 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
“We rejected it and we made a counteroffer,” Nielsen said.
Nielsen declined to divulge the proposed terms of the counteroffer, citing a federal court rule requiring confidentiality amid ongoing negotiations.
SilverWing’s counsel, Debora Kristensen of the Boise firm Givens Pursley, notes in an Oct. 15 letter that the discovery phase of the litigation is complete and that both sides have expended “a considerable amount of time and money” on the suit.
In light of a Nov. 1 deadline to file motions which could dispose of some or all of the claims without the need for a trial, Kristensen said she was authorized to make “one final attempt” to settle the matter.
Kristensen said in the two-page letter that her clients have reviewed all the evidence in the case and the anticipated costs of litigating the matter through trial, which is tracking toward an April setting.
“Based on this review, my clients are willing to settle their claims against Bonner County for a total payment by Bonner County of $4.5 million,” Kristensen said in the letter.
Kristensen quotes Nielsen as indicating that the county did not have such resources at its immediate disposal. As a result, Kristensen proposes a “mutually acceptable payment plan” that would enable the county to obtain such funds over the course of the next few years.
“Clearly, the County has been able to creatively cull together sufficient funds to defend this lawsuit — which we estimate to be close to $1 million — we are asking the County to approach settlement with the same creativity to end the flow of attorneys fees and uncertainty that are inherent in continuing this litigation, likely through appeal to the Ninth Circuit (Court of Appeals),” Kristensen said in the letter.
SilverWing at Sandpoint is a 45-unit planned unit development on the west side of Sandpoint Airport which proposed homes that are part dwelling and part aircraft hangar. The city of Sandpoint, with the endorsement of county officials, approved the development in 2007.
SilverWing sued the county in U.S. District Court last year, contending the county misled developers about a planned runway relocation and sought, under pressure from the Federal Aviation Administration, to extinguish an easement that grants SilverWing residents through-the-fence access to airport grounds.
At the time of the suit’s filing, SilverWing alleged that it had already invested $15 million in the development, which included the construction of a model unit and a west-side taxiway.
SilverWing’s suit seeks damages for breaching the covenant of good-faith dealings, inverse condemnation and violation of equal protection under the law.
The county disputes SilverWing’s claims and commissioners have vowed to vigorously defend the suit to avoid a costly judgment against the county and its taxpayers. Nielsen has stated an adverse judgment could cost the county up to $26 million.