Neighbors vow bypass fight
POST FALLS – Opponents of a newly-endorsed plan to eventually turn Huetter Road into a six-lane, north-south expressway say they’re undeterred and will continue their fight to kill the proposal.
The Kootenai Metropolitan Planning Organization voted 6-3 last week to accept a study that found by 2030, the bypass and it 60-mph traffic would be needed to relieve Post Falls-area congestion.
Lou Barten, a member of the new grass-roots Coalition for Planning Responsibly group, said the proposal is “insane” because it would be exorbitant, would unnecessarily divide the prairie and show poor stewardship of taxpayers’ dollars.
“They’re either irresponsible, incompetent or have nefarious intent,” Barten said of the KMPO project supporters.
The proposed roadway would run north and south between U.S. highways 41 and 95, originating north of Seltice Way in Post Falls and connecting to Highway 53 east of Rathdrum.
The goal is to relieve future congestion on existing highways as a result of residential and commercial growth, which is expected to continue.
Construction of the proposed freeway wouldn’t begin until about 2030, said Glenn Miles, KMPO’s executive director.
But acquiring property rights for future road construction must start now, said most board members. It’s estimated that swaths of land up to 770 feet wide would be needed to accommodate the road, its shoulders and bike paths.
“Kootenai County is a boom, and it’s going to keep going,” said KMPO board member Jimmie Dorsey, of the Eastside Highway District. “It’s up to this body to accommodate growth as it comes.
“Our job is to preserve the corridor opportunity … before it all grows up, so as this country grows we’re not gridlocked like Seattle is.”
About 50 people packed the Idaho Transportation Department’s headquarters in Coeur d’Alene for the meeting. Most who addressed the board said they opposed the project. They said they’d prefer alternatives to reduce traffic woes.
Suggestions included improving and widening U.S. 95, improving Highway 41, creating the bypass along either Greensferry or Pleasant View roads, and going back to the drawing board.
A Huetter Road bypass, opponents told the board, would be another “scar” on the prairie and a high-priced “bridge to nowhere.” And acquiring rights of way would significantly lower the value of homes and lots along the future route, they said.
Now that the measure has won KMPO’s approval, it will be up to the various jurisdictions governing the corridor to implement the recommendations in their respective master plans and require developers to set aside affected land for the road, Miles said.
Now, a full-blown analysis of other alternatives, environmental impact studies, decisions on access points and preliminary designs will need to be considered before the project is adopted, according to KMPO documents.
Barten said members of his group will attend every meeting, hearing and planning session in an attempt to get the roadway nixed.
Of the opponents in his group, he said, are people from Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls and elsewhere. “This is not a set of disgruntled homeowners,” said Barten, who lives near Huetter Road in Big Sky Estates.