Debate on building-height rules testy

Local merchants are worried a temporary stop on new downtown construction could frighten investors and destroy the very thing Coeur d’Alene officials want – new businesses and condos.

“The word ‘moratorium’ might scare developers,” Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association manager Terry Cooper said. “We’ve worked so hard to get people to move downtown, to live downtown – to shop and dine and enjoy themselves.”

The Coeur d’Alene City Council may decide Tuesday whether to temporarily halt the construction of new buildings in the downtown core until the city develops building height rules to preserve the natural views of Lake Coeur d’Alene and Tubbs Hill. Earlier this month the city’s Planning Commission recommended the moratorium, saying it is time for Coeur d’Alene to establish some type of building height restrictions. Currently, there are no height restrictions in downtown except on the shores of Lake Coeur d’Alene.

The idea has surfaced several times in the last two decades but always fizzled. Planning Commission Chairman John Bruning wasn’t available for comment Friday but said in previous interviews that the two latest downtown tower proposals have revived the need to act.

Downtown merchants and the city’s urban renewal agency known as Lake City Development Corp. agree that Coeur d’Alene should hire a consultant to study the relationship between building heights and view corridors. Yet they argue the work can happen without stopping new building for up to nine months.

The downtown association, which represents 300 merchants, wrote a letter to the council in February asking it to research the creation of new height rules. Its idea was to give developers additional floors if they agree to provide something that benefits the town. For example, a builder could add an additional story by making the structure pedestrian-friendly or leaving a portion of the lot undeveloped.

Those are the types of specifics the consultant would help the city develop.

The city’s Design Review Committee also lobbied for the study.

“I think there is a consensus out there to have a study done,” said LCDC member and local real estate agent Brad Jordan. “But a moratorium is a terrible thing to do now that downtown is finally turning around.”

Jordan also serves on the city’s Planning Commission but wasn’t at the April 12 meeting in which members voted 3-1 to recommend the building moratorium.

City Planning Director Dave Yadon said the council has made hiring a consultant to help develop building height rules a top priority. The city is in the process of asking Seattle consultant Mark Hinshaw of LMN Architects how much such a study would cost.

Yadon said the big question is whether to put a building moratorium in place while the study is conducted.

The temporary ban on construction wouldn’t have any effect on the recently approved 18-story Parkside on Front Avenue or a seven-floor condo on Sherman Avenue.

Cooper said the Parkside tower, just across Seventh Street from McEuen Terrace, is a perfect example of how to build a high-rise without creating a wall of buildings that block views of the lake.

The tower of condos with parking and retail space below would take up only 31 percent of the total site, leaving a view corridor, said Dick Stauffer of Miller Stauffer, the architecture firm proposing the Parkside.

Stauffer said the high density is needed to compensate for the costly aspects that make the project positive for downtown, such as abundant and free underground parking and public space such as the stores and the plaza.