Land Trade Would Fit Police Needs Council To Consider Giving Up 20 Acres For 3.3-Acre Site For New Headquarters

A land swap between Greenstone-Kootenai Inc. and Coeur d’Alene that would determine the site of the city’s future police headquarters is up for consideration at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.

Under the plan, the city would trade 20 acres of its property adjacent to Coeur d’Alene Place, a Greenstone development, for a 3.3-acre parcel in the Commerce Park subdivision on Schreiber Way.

The 3.3 acres is owned by Grant J. Forest, but would be bought by Greenstone and traded to the city should the council approve the move.

“We’ve got our police officers at two different sites now,” said city administrator Ken Thompson. “Our patrol operation is at City Hall, and our detectives are at Harbor Center, which is on Northwest Boulevard.”

Not only has it become increasingly difficult to coordinate communication between the two groups, Thompson said, but Coeur d’Alene’s rapid expansion has left both City Hall and police without a presence in the northern reaches of the municipality. The 3.3-acre site would address both concerns, he said.

The Commerce Park site is worth $302,000. The city property on Ramsey Road, near the Coeur d’Alene Place development, has been assessed at $220,000. As a part of the land swap, Greenstone would pay Coeur d’Alene the $82,000 difference.

Thompson said the $82,000 eventually would be included in the first of two $175,000 payments the city has committed to building athletic facilities at a new high school here.

Greenstone’s Jim Frank said the 20 acres he hopes to swap for the Commerce Park site was land Greenstone originally had donated to the city at the time Coeur d’Alene Place was approved.

“But they never had any intention of using that land,” Frank said. “Then they approached us and said, ‘If you guys will buy that (3.3 acres), then we’ll swap you our land near Coeur d’Alene Place.”’

Greenstone already owns 600 acres near the development, so the additional 20 acres allows the developer merely an additional measure of control over what happens on land around the development, Frank said.

“It accomplishes good things for everybody involved,” he said.

The City Council also will hear the General Services Committee’s report on finding an architect for the new police station. At the committee’s meeting last week, members said they would recommend approval to the City Council of Police Chief Dave Scates’ request for design proposals of the 14,000-square-foot station. The committee also will recommend approval of $72,000 to go for architectural services.

Other items on Tuesday’s agenda include discussion on the final phases of slash cleanup on Tubbs Hill. The General Services Committee will recommend approval of the Parks Department’s plan for disposal of the ice-storm debris, to include chipping and burning the slash.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: MEETING The City Council meets Tuesday night at 7 in City Hall.