Downtown Plan Asks Varied Compromises Proposal Takes Hits From Park Advocates, Boaters, Merchants

The final product of Coeur d’Alene’s downtown face lift will be determined by compromises boaters, park users and merchants make around McEuen Field.

Residents will have their say about a proposed downtown revitalization plan at a 6 p.m. hearing Monday at Lake City High School.

The input will help finish a process started by the 2-year-old Coeur d’Alene Urban Renewal Agency, which hired Walker-Macy of Portland to complete a master plan aimed at improving the downtown core.

The plan, released in early December, is taking hits from boaters who are fighting to keep the busiest public boat dock in the state, downtown merchants who want parking as close as possible to their shops, and advocates for McEuen Field who don’t want to remove play areas for kids.

“Really, the task right now is to listen to the community and evaluate that,” said Charlie Nipp, Urban Renewal Agency president.

The Walker-Macy plan calls for the immediate removal of the parking lot and half of the launches at the Third Street boat dock. In its place would be an outdoor plaza for community events.

The plan would also renovate Memorial Field, add parking and landscaping along Northwest Boulevard and leave most of McEuen Field intact.

Other improvements would include a place for a new library, moving the Museum of North Idaho, and adding parking spaces - all paid for with tax-increment financing. That means the Urban Renewal Agency would get any taxes for the next 13 years that come from property value increases in the downtown core.

One of the first steps would be the most controversial - eliminate the parking lot and some of the boat launches at the Third Street dock.

Local attorney Steve Bell in December purchased an ad in the Nickel’s Worth, asking people to fill out a petition against the removal of the boat launches.

Some 545 people mailed the petitions back, saying they wanted the boat launches left alone. None responded in favor of the plan.

“The attack on public green space is just incredible,” Bell said.

Nancy Sue Wallace, who sits on the Urban Renewal Agency, has publicly supported removing the launches, which she said are mostly used by out-of-staters.

“The Third Street boat launch will not be closed until we have enough other launches to handle the launches it receives,” she said.

But that could be years away, and the city first would need the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation to sign off on the plan.

That’s because the city first built the Third Street boat docks in 1966 with $51,103 it received from the federal Land and Water Conservation Funds, which are designed to be used for public access forever.

To close facilities built with those funds, the city would have to appraise the Third Street boat docks at today’s dollars, replace it with land of equal value and of equal lake access, said Jim Poulsen, with the state parks department.

Closing the Third Street launches, according to Nipp and Wallace, would only come when the federal Bureau of Land Management opens its proposed four-slip boat launch on Blackwell Island.

The BLM doesn’t see that happening soon, said Terry Kincaid, who works in the Coeur d’Alene BLM office.

“Currently there is no funding to implement the plan,” he said.

Even though the boat launch is the BLM’s highest priority for new construction, the U.S. Department of the Interior is using its funds for the next four years to refurbish existing buildings, Kincaid said.

“We may have to let that maintenance program run its course to become competitive for the construction money,” he said.

Even when constructed, the shallow water at Blackwell Island the site would only allow boats 24-foot or shorter to be launched, and only between June and September.

Nipp said the Urban Renewal Agency is aware of the restrictions that accompany the federal funds but wants to finalize a plan before trying to make it work.

Clay Larkin, Post Falls city councilman and longtime user of the Third Street boat launch, said he doesn’t think the Blackwell Island plan would be enough to replace the Third Street boat docks.

“You are taking away something that brings a lot of dollars to Coeur d’Alene,” he said.

The stores that depend on that revenue also want to change the plan, Wallace said.

The proposed community plaza would take up the space now occupied by the boat launches and parking.

Two parking lots would be built along Front Avenue. But merchants want the planners to swap the parking lots and the outdoor plaza, so that parking is west of the plaza.

“Their concern is that they want parking on Front Avenue as close to Second Street as possible,” Wallace said. “Change can easily take place.”

Charlie Roan, president of the McEuen Preservation Alliance, said he doesn’t like the merchants’ plan of swapping the plaza with parking.

“They would meet tremendous resistance if the plaza displaces any of the green space that is now part of the McEuen corridor,” he said.

Roan said Walker-Macy did an honorable job in formulating a plan that meets the needs of several conflicting sides.

However, the plan calls for eliminating three of four existing play areas for kids. Two are currently located at McEuen and one is at Memorial Field.

“The thing that would bother me very much would be to see the profile of the users change dramatically,” he said.

At ball games in the summer, grandparents come to walk Tubbs Hill. And, brothers and sisters come to play in the park instead of watching games.

“The guy who lives across the street, who works for $6-an-hour job, whose greatest joy in life is putting that kid in a stroller, walking a block and swinging his kid on a swing, has just as much right as anybody in the Downtown Business Association,” Roan said.

This sidebar appeared with the story: IF YOU GO Public hearing

The public hearing for the Walker-Macy master plan will be Monday at 6 p.m. at Lake City High School, 6101 Ramsey Road.

Doug Macy will present the plan for about 30 minutes and then answer questions for 30 minutes. Then residents will be allowed to comment.

The Coeur d’Alene Urban Renewal Agency will use the comments to make changes. Walker-Macy will revise the plan before it is presented to the City Council on March 21.