Experts say Sherman reroute feasible

Local engineers agree it’s possible to close two blocks of Sherman Avenue and change the way drivers have accessed downtown Coeur d’Alene for decades.

But the question isn’t about feasibility. It’s about whether downtown merchants will embrace Duane Hagadone’s latest expansion idea that includes turning the entrance to downtown into a world-renowned botanical garden and expanding the Coeur d’Alene Resort.

“If you go with your first reaction it’s probably ‘Holy cow, what are you thinking,’ ” said Jim Coleman of JUB Engineering, the company Hagadone hired to see if replacing the asphalt on two blocks of Sherman with flowers was even possible. “I think people just have to weigh the pluses and advantages of all the alterations and see what falls out.”

Coeur d’Alene’s Growth Services Director Gordon Dobler hasn’t yet seen Hagadone’s official proposal, but said rerouting the traffic is definitely doable. Both Lakeside Avenue and Sherman Avenue have the ability to handle the traffic alterations.

Yet Dobler agrees the engineering isn’t the real concern.

“If you redirect traffic, what are you doing with the businesses and getting traffic to them?” Dobler said. “That’s the critical issue to be addressed.”

So far, downtown business owners are cautious about commenting on Hagadone’s plans for perhaps a 12-story tower with 175 rooms on the northwest corner of Sherman and Second. Some applaud the idea and many others said they need more time to study the effect of rerouting the entrance to the downtown shopping district.

If downtown businesses don’t buy the idea, Hagadone has promised to scrap the proposal. His backup plan is to build a hotel tower in Spokane across from the Spokane Convention Center.

Yet he said shutting down streets isn’t rare. He pointed to Boise’s Grove Hotel and the convention center that closed some downtown streets in the capital city.

“I didn’t want to do anything that was going to hurt downtown,” Hagadone told the business leaders.

No formal traffic study has been done, but Coleman said he was able to look at cursory information and predict that it’s very possible to reroute traffic onto Lakeside Avenue and still get people to the Sherman Avenue businesses.

It would mean perhaps widening Lakeside Avenue by eliminating parking between Northwest Boulevard and Second Street and then softening the corners onto Second Street and onto Sherman Avenue. The intersection at Second Street and Sherman Avenue would still need a stoplight so pedestrians could cross the street to get to the new resort tower and gardens.

Because Sherman Avenue would be closed, drivers heading south on Northwest Boulevard would turn east on Lakeside Avenue. They also could still turn into the Independence Point parking lot, which wouldn’t be impacted by the gardens or resort expansion. Coleman said the plans would preserve the view of the lake that drivers now see coming into downtown.

After turning on Lakeside Avenue, drivers would be routed back onto Sherman Avenue via Second Street, wrapping in front of the new hotel tower.

Removing the sharp 90-degree corners and providing adequate signage pointing people to downtown shopping and lake access will make it more natural for drivers to find Sherman Avenue, Coleman said.

Through traffic would be encouraged to stay on Lakeside Avenue until it dumps onto Sherman at Eighth Street.

When traffic flows were initially reconfigured for the downtown revitalization about a decade ago, Coleman said the idea was for Lakeside to take all the through traffic. That’s why there are the two curves onto Lakeside at both the Northwest Boulevard and Eighth Street entrances. Unfortunately, Coleman said, that never caught on and drivers continue to use Sherman Avenue as a through street even though it is faster to use Lakeside.

He doesn’t anticipate the same problem if the streets are reconfigured because it would be a lot more obvious that through traffic should stay on Lakeside, unless drivers are trying to get to Sherman Avenue shops or Lake Coeur d’Alene.

Hagadone told the business leaders that he expects the city to pay for any traffic reroutes or improvements to Lakeside and Second. He said the tradeoff is that the public gets to enjoy the botanical gardens for free.

Coleman said it’s uncertain where guests would access the new hotel tower. But the hotel is expected to attract little traffic, because most guests would park at the current resort. Guests and luggage would be shuttled between the two buildings and a heated, covered path through the garden would connect the two hotels.

Mayor Sandi Bloem said she and the council have gotten many calls since Hagadone’s announcement last week. And the reaction is mixed.

“Many people are urging careful consideration, time and effort to study the issue,” Bloem said. “It’s a request that changes the way something has appeared for quite a long time. When you change something like that, you can expect a lot of community response.”