Cottage Site Transactions

State endowment trust land has been leased for use as residential sites, known as cottage sites, since the early 1900s. Over the past several decades cottage site lessees have expressed a desire to purchase the endowment land they lease, thus unifying the estate (ownership) of both structure (cottage) and land (site).In 2010, the Land Board voted to divest ownership of cottage sites at Priest Lake and Payette Lake and directed IDL to develop the voluntary auction for ownership (VAFO) process. In 2018, the Land Board approved a plan that would allow for additional VAFO auction cycles through 2024.

Updates: Cottage Site Auctions

• The next auction for leased lots and unleased lots at Payette Lake will be the summer/fall of 2020.
• The next auction for leased lots at Priest Lake will be in August 15, 2020.
• Information on leased sites that will be available at auction at Priest Lake can be viewed at Corbett Bottles.

Voluntary Auction for Ownership

• The applicant must be the current cottage site lessee in good standing.
• The auction is a public, oral, competitive auction.
• Each site is actively marketed prior to the auction date.
• Anyone can participate in a direct sale auction after going through the application process.

Unleased Land Auction

• Information on the unleased properties that are available for nomination can be found at Corbett Bottles.
• The auction is a public, oral, competitive auction.
• Anyone can participate in a direct sale auction after an unleased property has been nominated.

Land Exchange

The IDL director suspended all pending and future land exchange proposals involving cottage sites from consideration or further evaluation until the legal and policy related concerns about cottage site land exchanges can be further examined.