Where Are We Growing? Kootenai County’S Rapid Development May Change Things Many People Love About This Region

Talk to any recent transplant to Kootenai County and they’ll tell you why they moved here: quality of life.

People who were born here stick around for the same reason.

But with the influx of Californians, Washingtonians, Oregonians and so on, coupled with the growth of Idaho’s own population, Kootenai County is facing the consequences of growth — good and bad — more and more frequently.

More people can draw in more commercial and industrial businesses, lowering taxes on residential property. More businesses around also can benefit consumers by providing more competing stores to choose from. And growth can mean a larger tax base to provide amenities like nice parks and paved roads.

On the other hand, some say Interstate 90 is nearing capacity. Large housing developments pack local schools full of children. Residents dependent on a sole-source aquifer worry about protecting it as houses sprout up over the Rathdrum Prairie.

And plenty of people in love with the beauty of North Idaho say the ugliness of suburban sprawl is starting to infest their towns.

If Kootenai County doesn’t plan its growth well enough, the quality of life its residents love will plummet, many people say.

Since 1990, the county has grown from just under 70,000 people to around 100,000, according to U.S. Census figures.

Post Falls led the pack in percentage of growth from 1990 to 1996, the most recent years for which statistics were available. It nearly doubled its population during that time, according to statistics from the state Department of Commerce.

Rathdrum grew by 70 percent, Hayden by 63 percent and Coeur d’Alene by 27 percent, according to the department.

Schools

Gail Worden of Post Falls has two children doubleshifting at Post Falls Middle School. She doesn’t think Idaho law does enough for school districts needing to build new facilities.

“The way Idaho handles school construction, it’s very hard for fast growing communities to keep up,” she said.

Idaho is the only state that requires a two-thirds majority approval by voters to build schools and also doesn’t contribute anything to the cost of construction.

“That is not a good distinction,” Worden said. “That is not what our state wants to be known for.”

She’d like the state to lower the supermajority requirement and pay at least 30 percent of the cost of building schools, she said.

And she wants impact fees to go to schools, too. Right now, the fees developers pay every time a new building is constructed goes to parks, streets and police protection. In some states, the fees also help pay for education.

Post Falls City Councilman Clay Larkin puts it this way: “The legislators have to get out of the Dark Ages, which they’re always in,” he said. “They want to produce Rhodes scholars on a peanut butter budget.”

The supermajority must be lowered, Larkin said, and the state has to increase its per student spending.

He’s already seen businesses he’d love to have in Post Falls choose not to come because of the education system, he said.

But Post Falls is improving its education offerings with construction of a new high school, a University of Idaho research park and a North Idaho College work force training center, he said.

Infrastructure

State Highway 41 tops many Rathdrum Prairie residents’ list of concerns for how growth will impact roads.

The county and the cities of Rathdrum and Post Falls have all signed an agreement with the Idaho Transportation Department that will limit access onto Highway 41. That’ll keep traffic from slowing down at intersections along the highway.

As for other roads, Rathdrum is working on a plan to revitalize its downtown and pave streets.

Post Falls widened Third Avenue last year and has other street improvement plans in the works. The Post Falls Highway District wants to extend Pleasant View Road from Seltice Way north to Prairie Avenue.

“That would tie the freeway together with Highway 53,” said Lynn Humphreys, chairman of the Post Falls Highway District commissioners.

Councilman Larkin would like more pedestrian trails around Post Falls.

“People will be safer,” he said.

The best thing local governments can do to plan for the area’s growth is continue to work together, said Rathdrum Planning Administrator Jan Hale.

For example, the county and its cities have been working together on a sewer study, she said, and representatives from cities and the county regularly meet with representatives from Spokane, Spokane County, Millwood, Airway Heights and others in a group called the Regional Exchange Team.

Another intergovernmental group, the Kootenai County Area Transportation Team also regularly discusses transportation issues in Kootenai County.

“In the years to come, I see even more cooperation between these agencies,” Hale said.

Recreation

Three years ago, the Lions Club in Rathdrum built three ball fields for area kids to use.

“That was in direct response to growth because there was no place to go,” said Janine Baxter, president of Lakeland Little League.

That’s a common refrain among parents who want their children to have a safe place to play. They want more recreation space all over Kootenai County.

This year, with hundreds of baseball and softball players from Rathdrum, Spirit Lake, Garwood and Athol, and the Lions Club fields and other fields in the area, Baxter figures they’re doing all right.

In other cities and in other sports, though, parents and coaches frequently ask for more room. A group of them formed a nonprofit organization in Post Falls called Youth First that is devoted specifically to improving recreational opportunities for kids.

There are plans to build a skate park in Rathdrum and Post Falls, and plans to build or improve ball fields, too. Post Falls is considering buying a swimming pool and a softball complex.

The problem is coming up with the money and space for all the things cities want to do.

A sales tax hike the county will put up to a vote in May would increase taxes in Kootenai County by half a cent. The money would pay for improving the juvenile detention center and for some recreation venues around the county.

Impact fees in Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene help, city officials have said. Hayden’s ordinance enacting impact fees will go into effect April 1. And once the cities have caught up with the existing demands of their populations, the fees should keep them caught up, officials have said.

Environment

Taking care of the sole-source aquifer is one of former Panhandle Health District Director Larry Belmont’s biggest concerns about growth, he said.

“Just punching septic tanks out there and letting that get into our drinking water is a serious problem,” he said. “It’s a pristine water source out there. It’s one of God’s greatest gifts.”

And it’s also got its limits.

“There is a carrying capacity there,” Belmont said. “Some estimates are that we’re using half of the water there.”

The district has tried to steer growth into the cities by allowing only one septic tank for every five acres of land, he said. That has helped protect the aquifer.

He worries about the gradual disappearance of the open land on the Rathdrum Prairie because of its usefulness as a place to spray treated effluent. As the green space vanishes, cities still will need some place besides the Spokane River to dump the effluent, Belmont said.

“We have to face the fact that we have to have that open space on the prairie,” he said.

“Management of growth is absolutely essential to our health.”

And it can be managed, he said, in part by having growth pay for its own costs. Capitalization fees, for example, help offset the cost of providing sewer service.

Humphreys, who is a farmer in addition to being a Post Falls Highway commissioner, worries about the disappearance of agriculture on the Rathdrum Prairie.

“There’s a lot of farm ground that should never have been built on,” he said.

While farmers haven’t always been the best stewards of the environment, they’ve learned and are careful not to pollute the aquifer, he said.

On the other hand, people with manicured lawns in subdivisions might, he said.

“Just because they want the green lawn doesn’t mean we need to dump all sorts of chemicals on there to make it as green as possible,” he said.

People using all sorts of fertilizers need to be educated about what effect those chemicals will have on their water supply, he said.

Business

Growth has been good for business, said Ron McIntire, who owns three Super 1 Food stores in Hayden, Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls and the store planned for Rathdrum.

“We’ve expanded quite a lot,” he said. “Growth is really good as long as it doesn’t get wild.”

For consumers, living in a growing area means more choices, he said, and more competition between sellers means better prices and quality goods for buyers.

“The customer is always the winner,” he said. “It makes the merchant work harder.”

McIntire credits Jobs Plus, a job recruitment agency, for bringing in numerous businesses. But he worries that there aren’t enough industrial jobs in the area that pay high wages.

There are lots of service jobs, he said, but “they are not the higher paying jobs.”

Councilman Larkin wonders about how to entice businesses to the area.

“If you could come up with that answer and I could, we could make a million bucks,” he said. “We’ve got so much to offer!”

He points to the new educational facilities in Post Falls as an example.

Larkin would like to change the ratio of business development to residential development in Post Falls, he said. That would lower the property tax burden on homeowners.

“A few years ago, we were like 65 percent residential and 35 percent commercial,” he said. “We’re now closer to 80 percent residential and 20 percent commercial.”

Like many Kootenai County residents who worry about sprawl, Worden wants a vital downtown area in her town, Post Falls, and more green space, she said.

“Post Falls’ growth is just further entrenching ourselves as a bedroom community,” said Worden, a resident. “I think we’re becoming a city of strip malls.”

Growth in Kootenai County Kootenai County has grown by more than 40 percent since the last U.S. Census in 1990. Here’s how much 10 of the cities in the county have grown from 1990 to 1996, ranked from fastest growing percentage-wise to slowest. Figures are from the Idaho Department of Commerce. City 1996 population 1990 population Percent increase Post Falls 14,303 7,349 95 percent Rathdrum 3,409 2,000 70 percent Hayden 7,951 4,888 63 percent Hayden Lake 474 338 40 percent Stateline 35 26 35 percent Athol 461 346 33 percent Hauser 486 380 28 percent Coeur d’Alene 31,076 24,561 27 percent Spirit Lake 840 790 6 percent Harrison 236 226 4 percent