Court rejects injunction on PL appraisals

SANDPOINT — A 1st District judge again declined on Friday to grant a preliminary injunction to Priest Lake cottage site lessees.

More than 70 cottage site lessees moved stop the Idaho Department of Lands from using recent appraisals to set lease payments, minimum bids or establish the value of improvements to the cottage sites.

The lessees argued that they have a constitutionally protected right to renew their cottage site leases — in essence a property right in the next lease.

Judge Barbara Buchanan held in June that the due-process clause in the Constitution does not create substantive rights in property.

The lessees moved for reconsideration and asked the court for an injunction that would preserve the status quo, according to court documents. The state opposed the move, emphasizing that the lessees still have the right to renew their leases and have therefore been deprived of nothing.

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