Downtown CdA group supports garden

The Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association has become the second local business group in recent weeks to ask Duane Hagadone to revive his offer to build a $20 million memorial garden in downtown Coeur d’Alene.

The association that represents more then 300 downtown merchants sent Hagadone a letter Wednesday asking that the garden plan get a full public review. The group’s board unanimously voted to support the letter. The move follows a similar request made last month by the Coeur d’Alene Area Chamber of Commerce.

“The Cd’A Downtown Association feels that the garden proposal was pulled too soon, and did not get a chance to be fully studied by all parties,” the letter reads. “It was with great interest and intrigue that we began an objective study of your proposal and we wish to finish that study.”

Hagadone said he hasn’t yet decided whether to resubmit his offer to build a garden in Coeur d’Alene in tribute to his parents, take the plan to Post Falls or ditch the idea altogether.

“I really haven’t given it much thought,” Hagadone said, adding that he’s been busy with other projects such as expanding the Blackwell Island marina and getting approval for a $120 million condo complex on the Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course.

Hagadone said he will eventually make a decision because he owes it to all the groups that have asked him to reconsider. Yet he’s adamant that if the Coeur d’Alene plan is reintroduced there would be minor “tweaks” but no significant changes. It would propose that the garden be created on the 3.4 acres in front of his Coeur d’Alene Resort and the city reroute traffic off Sherman Avenue for a block and a half.

In December, Hagadone pulled his original proposal to close two blocks of Sherman, a major street that runs through downtown Coeur d’Alene. Hagadone said he feared that a proposed advisory vote on the subject could divide the community and torpedo the library and public safety bonds that were to be on the same February ballot.

Many locals were angered by what they saw as a self-serving proposal from Coeur d’Alene’s most prominent businessman. The proposed gardens would have been adjacent to Hagadone’s Coeur d’Alene Resort.

Consultants hired by the Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association and the city said they liked the garden concept, but they indicated that closing Sherman would hurt business.

The chamber did not take an official position when Hagadone initially proposed the downtown garden.

After Hagadone withdrew the garden proposal, Post Falls immediately offered him the city’s 58-acre Black Bay Park along the Spokane River.

Downtown association president Ed Muehlback didn’t return calls Thursday, but association manager Terry Cooper said that members agreed the idea needs to be revisited so the public has an opportunity to offer various options or alternatives that might be compatible for downtown.

Hagadone has described the proposed Coeur d’Alene garden as similar in quality to the renowned Butchart Gardens, though much smaller than the Victoria, B.C., landmark. The idea was hatched after his father, Burl Hagadone, died of cancer in 1959. Duane Hagadone’s mother, Beverly, died in 1984.