Parking Rules To Be Rewritten To Aid Downtown Projects

The City Council decided not to throw out downtown parking regulations Tuesday evening, but made it clear it will make life easier on developers.

Before the council voted, however, resident Tom McMichael chastised the council for not giving people more notice the regulations were on the verge of repeal. Had the word gotten out, more people would have protested, said McMichael, who lives downtown.

“Give the people time to work something out without running post-haste,” McMichael said.

The year-old parking ordinance requires developers and merchants to provide a certain number of offstreet parking spots within 300 feet of their business or pay a hefty city fee. The rules are stifling downtown re-development, according to the Planning Commission.

Jim Loedding has been unable to remodel the old Interstate Typewriter building on Sherman Avenue, in part because the parking slots he’s located are 335 feet from the business, city staff said.

But two businesses have paid $15,000 to date under the ordinance and Councilman Mike McDowell worried that repealing the ordinance would place that money in jeopardy. The city still needs the money to buy property for parking, he noted.

So the council agreed to order the Planning Commission, Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association and the Parking Commission to draft a better ordinance by mid-January. In the interim, the council will attempt a temporary revision that allows parking spaces up to 400 feet from the business.

The council had a more heated discussion over whether a lowincome senior citizen housing project should be allowed to escape all but $1 in its park land dedication fee. City rules require that developers set aside so much land for parks or pay a fee toward park development elsewhere in the city.

The Public Works Committee recommended the Lakewood Ranch development be required to pay a $10,000 fee since its park area will not be open to the public. Councilwoman Dixie Reid called the fee “an extraction.” Councilman Kevin Packard said it was “a takings.”

The council deferred to the wishes of the North Idaho Community Action Agency, the non-profit partner in the project, and voted 4-2 to waive all but $1 of the fee.

, DataTimes