Urban Renewal Gets Ok No Change At Mceuen Field, Council Tells Packed Auditorium

Assuring people that there will be no buildings spoiling McEuen Field’s green space, a unanimous Coeur d’Alene City Council is pressing ahead with a controversial urban renewal plan.

And throughout a four-hour meeting late Tuesday, city officials emphasized that there is no mandate in the plan that dictates anything will change with the part of McEuen Field where adults and children play.

“The Urban Renewal Commission does not have control over any of that property,” Mayor Al Hassell said. Any decision to change the field and park will come at the behest of the Parks and Recreation Commission, City Council and, in some cases, state and federal officials.

These reassurances pleased the McEuen Preservation Alliance, which helped pack the Coeur d’Alene High School auditorium to overflowing. “We had every council member say that they will not touch McEuen Field,” said Charlie Roan of the alliance.

“I think that was as good as we can expect.”

Urban renewal opponents feared the city’s plans would lead to commercial development or other changes that displace McEuen Field.

The next step is for the Urban Renewal Commission to decide where to start redeveloping downtown. That may mean hiring a master planner to tell the city how to spruce up a swath of territory from City Hall on the east to the Third Street boat launch on the west. Improvements in that corridor could primarily be built at the city parking lot and on the fringes of the McEuen area, city officials say.

Tuesday’s decision was critical to starting the urban renewal project. If the council had not decided to adopt the plan before the end of the year, it could not use tax increment financing for improvements for another year.

Tax increment financing allows the Urban Renewal Agency to capture revenue from any increase in property tax valuation and direct it toward infrastructure and acquiring property. The agency doesn’t get 100 percent of the taxes from the increased value. The Coeur d’Alene School District will continue to receive its share.

Kootenai County Commissioner Ron Rankin, long a property tax activist, criticized the tax increment financing as a Ponzi scheme and taxation without representation at Tuesday’s hearing.

He also accused the council of making up its mind in advance.

Other criticisms of the urban renewal plan centered on including McEuen Field in any master plan for change. But backers of the plan came to the speaker’s podium in greater force, saying the city must improve the area to draw more people and boost downtown business.

, DataTimes