Public must have a say on CdA plan

Tom Robb and other downtown Coeur d’Alene business owners make a good case for a public advisory vote on closing two blocks of Sherman Avenue so businessman Duane Hagadone can build a botanical garden and expand his resort.

The public owns the property, Robb reasons correctly, the public should have a say on what becomes of it.

“This is as important a decision as the downtown and the people of Coeur d’Alene will ever make,” the co-owner of the Iron Horse restaurant told the Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association this week.

We agree with Robb, to a point. Closure of any part of historic Sherman Avenue is a very public topic. The answer doesn’t have to be a public vote, but every effort should be made to have a no-holds-barred public discussion of Hagadone’s request. City officials did the right thing, therefore, in scheduling public workshops about the issue in December and January. With so much at stake, Mayor Sandi Bloem and the City Council should make sure they know what the public wants before they – the council members – vote on the matter early next year.

Unfortunately, Bloem and her council go into the process under a cloud of suspicion.

Last spring, four council members ignored overwhelming testimony and about 2,000 petition signatures in voting to annex Hagadone’s golf course and other property without requiring him to grant perpetual access to his part of Sanders Beach in exchange. Some Coeur d’Alene residents are still steamed about that 4-2 vote. Also, some residents are concerned that Hagadone pitched the garden idea to individual council members. One man asked the prosecutor’s office if the private talks had violated the state open meeting law.

Hagadone has made an appealing proposal, but from this point on, everything about this proposal should be done in public.

At this point, the city is planning a public workshop on or about Dec. 13 at which Hagadone and engineering experts will present the hotel expansion/garden concept and address street realignment problems. Then, in January, the city will conduct a second workshop to give the public a chance to respond to Hagadone’s plans. If necessary, according to the city attorney’s office, more workshops will be added.

City officials should resist the temptation to stage-manage the workshops. Without a public vote, the workshops are the best way to gauge public sentiment for Hagadone’s project. Every resident should have a chance to be heard and to question Hagadone and his engineers directly about their plans. They should be given ample time to speak, too. It’s up to Hagadone to sell his proposal, not the council.

In the end, civic leaders and developers who invite the public’s vigorous input and give it respectful consideration build credibility for the project, faith in the process and trust in themselves.

Hagadone, to his credit, has been open about his plans, telling groups he will gladly withdraw his proposal if someone can find a fatal flaw in it. The botanical garden, we believe, would become an amazing quasi-public asset to Coeur d’Alene, rivaling The Coeur d’Alene Resort boardwalk as a tourist attraction. But the plan still should have intense public scrutiny.