North Idaho Downtowns Face Bleak Future Without Revitalization

Downtown areas in four North Idaho waterfront communities need suggestions for revitalization.

Business people and city officials fear the downtowns are dying or may die. Sprawling growth continues to divert traffic from the core areas to the new shopping areas that serve the outlying residential developments. Main highways already skirt downtown areas or likely will.

Coeur d’Alene, Sandpoint, Post Falls and Bonners Ferry all are involved. And fast-growing Rathdrum shouldn’t ignore the trend.

The four larger cities are not taking full advantage of their waterfront amenities - the lakeshores in Coeur d’Alene and Sandpoint and the river frontage in Post Falls and Bonners Ferry.

In each case, nothing will be free, although land trades could ease the towns’ financial burdens.

Coeur d’Alene has had great suggestions from residents at public hearings on the future of the downtown area. The best ideas involve providing attractions to bring more residents and visitors downtown, because five months’ worth of inconsistent tourism isn’t enough for most businesses to survive.

The best ideas aren’t new.

Downtown Coeur d’Alene needs live theater or a movie theater, or a combination of the two.

Sale and destruction of the old Wilma Theatre at Second and Sherman was a huge mistake. Evidently a clause in the sale to Coeur d’Alene Mines was that a theater couldn’t be located there. The seller was a theater company with “competing” theaters in town. We can’t blame the seller for protecting itself, but maybe a theater could be put in another key downtown location.

Both downtown Coeur d’Alene and Sandpoint need a “name” store or two. However, if someone even whispers “Nordstrom” or “Bon Marche,” some existing downtown clothiers threaten to cut their financial support of overall changes.

You can bet Coeur d’Alene City Council candidate Hank Roseth got negative responses from would-be competing businesses when he made bringing in such stores part of his platform. However, he may gain votes from others for the same reason.

Coeur d’Alene’s dream of bringing the library downtown is a fine idea, especially if it includes meeting rooms for community groups and service clubs and an auditorium. Possible locations include the area near the McEuen Park basketball court or across the street to the east where nearly the entire block is for sale anyway. Both properties have views of the park, lake, Tubbs Hill and the resort.

The existing library building could be expanded, either on adjacent property that the library already owns or upward, since the building evidently was constructed with the possibility of adding a story.

Perhaps downtown Coeur d’Alene’s best idea would be to connect the area to the lake by making the parking blocks between Front Street and the lake into a park with public amenities.

Having parking lots on waterfront or best-view properties is a waste. They could be on the “inland side” of downtown, maybe in the space of what is now unused railroad track.

City planners are working on the possibilities of bringing white collar and non-industrial businesses to the downtown area. Although it hurt the downtown with its Wilma Theatre deal, the Coeur d’Alene Mines company absolutely graces the downtown with its parkside corporate office facility built in the ‘80s. Other companies might be encouraged to follow that lead.

One way to bring “customers” and more life downtown year-round would be to locate more condominiums and apartments there.

Although some would oppose more downtown high-rises, with proper planning these buildings could ring the downtown area and not block views.

If nothing is done to revitalize North Idaho’s downtown areas, the number of empty buildings will grow and turn into eyesores.

The remedies may be costly in more ways than just money. Small-town ambiance might be affected. But progress can’t always be fair to everyone.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Nils Rosdahl The Spokesman-Review