Town grapples with its growth
Post Falls resident Robin Powell cringes over the number of new subdivisions gobbling up the Rathdrum Prairie.
“We are wasting our land resources and endangering our aquifer without even seeming to think or care,” said Powell, the learn-to-skate director at Planet Ice in Spokane Valley. “I see photographs in the library of what this area used to be. … Once they farmed the land, now they sell it as though it were candy.”
When she moved to Post Falls in 1996, Powell could open her bedroom windows at night and barely hear the freeway. “Now, it’s a constant stream of traffic,” she said.
For Joel Stookey, Post Falls has lost its identity and sense of community.
“We don’t know who we are in Post Falls,” said Stookey, a retired business owner who has lived there since 1968.
Getting to know one new neighbor takes time, Stookey said, and when it’s an “army” of new residents, “it’s very difficult.”
Others, including California transplant Bob Baxter, are excited about the benefits of economic development in Post Falls, including more dining and shopping options, as well as higher equity for homes and property.
Baxter was raised in Southern California and moved to Idaho in 1993. He remembers seeing bumper stickers that read: “Don’t Californicate Idaho.”
But, based on his observations, he thinks the scales have tipped.
“That has subsided quite a bit with us transplants being the majority instead of the minority now,” said Baxter, who is the information technology systems coordinator at the University of Idaho in Coeur d’Alene.
From his experience, Baxter said he knows that “if you don’t like where you are, you can move.”
Whatever their view, most people agree that Post Falls has irreversibly changed. In the past 10 years growth has been dramatic:
“Population has almost doubled, from 12,500 in 1995 to 23,000 today.
“7,500 new houses have been added.
“The city limits have grown by 2,796 acres.
Residents in Post Falls have the best of both worlds – big-city amenities in Spokane to the west and Lake Coeur d’Alene to the east.
“People like to have those opportunities close to hand,” said developer Jason Wheaton, president of Greenstone Corp., the largest home builder in Spokane and Kootenai counties. Greenstone is building a 1,600-home subdivision in Post Falls called Montrose.
The project adds about 100 units every year toward its 1,600 goal.
“By the time the house is built,” Wheaton said, “it’s sold.”
Post Falls has for at least 15 years held a spot among the top 10 fastest-growing cities in Idaho. What makes it different from other cities on the list, said regional economist Kathryn Tacke, is that Post Falls is outgrowing its “bedroom community” status by attracting industries instead of just residents.
The five largest employers in Post Falls – Center Partners, Wal-Mart, Buck Knives, Flexcel and Sysco – have added 1,880 jobs since the early 1990s, Tacke said. Though the number of new jobs is only a fraction of the number of new residents, Post Falls still leads in job growth over other rapidly growing Idaho cities such as the Boise suburbs of Kuna, Eagle and Meridian.
Post Falls has the advantage of being in a state with less restrictive business laws than Washington, Tacke said, yet near enough to Spokane to benefit from its labor force, airport and other amenities. Post Falls’ location on Interstate 90 and near a major rail line, BNSF Railway Co., are additional pluses.
Aging baby boomers are also doing their part to bump up growth in Post Falls. Retirees account for the largest number of new residents in the city, according to Post Falls planner Collin Coles.
Unlike Coeur d’Alene, which is bordered by the lake and mountains, Post Falls is not limited in its growth by geographical factors, Tacke added.
All these factors point to continued growth in Post Falls. The challenge facing city officials, then, is how to keep up with it.
Market ‘unbelievable’
Post Falls Mayor Clay Larkin wants people to understand this about his city: “We don’t take growth lightly.”
The reason behind the growth, Larkin said, is that the market for property is “unbelievable.”
“We’re not the drivers of that,” he added. “We’re just providing the infrastructure to keep up.”
Larkin predicts the population of Post Falls will peak at 100,000 in the next 20 to 25 years, “if not sooner.”
Larkin, who is serving his second term as mayor, understands that some people oppose the growth. He moved to Post Falls 35 years ago when the population was about 2,371. Now it’s 10 times that. But Larkin emphasizes the improved services that have come with the boom – the new Police Department, a quality wastewater treatment plant, wider streets and pedestrian pathways.
In the next five years, developer Harry Green plans to build homes, offices, a marina, town square, amphitheater, restaurant and a hotel and conference center on 33 acres along the Spokane River called Post Falls Landing.
Stopping development isn’t a solution, Larkin said, because doing so would impact businesses that have invested in the city, which would in turn negatively affect residents. Having a commercial base takes some of the tax burden off residents.
Instead, Larkin said, Post Falls must effectively manage the growth.
The city frequently updates its comprehensive plan, detailing what land can be used for what purpose.
For example, higher-density housing zones are closer to the city center and lower-density housing zones are closer to the prairie, as a way to transition into open space, he said.
Like Coeur d’Alene and Hayden, Post Falls charges developers impact fees to pay for infrastructure such as streets, lights and sewer and water hookups. It also requires developers of large projects to analyze the effect of their plans on traffic.
Community development director Gary Young prefers big housing developments for that reason. “We’re able to look at the project as a whole and the impact on the city,” he said.
Those lands would be developed over time either way, Young added, so it’s better to plan long-term than on a year-to-year basis, as would be the case with several independent projects occupying the same space.
Many large developments are being designed as mixed-use neighborhoods, with commercial buildings as well as residential. The idea is to create walkable, self-contained communities instead of rows of houses.
Young acknowledged that some people panic at the thought of 1,000-plus subdivisions, but he said that the projects are built over a long period of time.
Another benefit to large developments, Young said, is that developers donate land for parks and schools, which otherwise would have to be purchased by the city and school district.
Stretched by growth
Even with those donations, though, growth puts pressure on public entities such as schools and roads.
“They’re way behind on everything,” said Post Falls resident Frank Nelson, an Air Force retiree.
He moved from the Olympic Peninsula in 2003 to be closer to medical care in Coeur d’Alene and his son, who lives in Post Falls.
“I’ve seen a big change in the two years since I’ve been here,” Nelson said, citing traffic congestion as an example. “They need to put a halt to housing, kind of a moratorium until they can get the logistics settled.”
The growth in Post Falls has taxed the city’s infrastructure. Schools and roads particularly feel the brunt of new residents.
Though the school district does not take an official position on the growth, Superintendent Jerry Keane concedes: “It’s sometimes hard to stay up with it, that’s for sure.”
In his 27-year tenure at the school district, Keane has seen the student population double. The district updates its long-range plan every three to four years, Keane said. “Things change so rapidly it’s hard to know if you’re on target.”
For example, the high school, built in 2000, was expected to be big enough to accommodate students through 2009. Now the district is planning to form a committee this winter to study whether it should add eight classrooms earlier than that.
Enrollment has increased about 3 percent a year since 1990, though even that is unpredictable, Keane explained. Last year the growth was less than 2 percent; this year it’s 4.5 percent. Currently, local schools are teaching 5,289 students – 762 more than five years ago and 1,358 more than 10 years ago.
The district will ask voters next fall to approve a new elementary school. It would open in 2008, though the district could use an additional facility now, Keane said.
Unlike any other state, Idaho requires two-thirds voter approval for a bond levy and does not provide state funding for new facilities. Other states may have one of those features, but not both. Having both makes the situation particularly difficult for Idaho school districts.
Fortunately for Post Falls, Keane said, citizens have usually understood the district’s requests because of the obvious growth. The last time a construction bond issue failed was about eight years ago.
In turn, the district has started constructing schools that are designed to be expanded when needed, in an effort to save voters money.
Congested streets
Perhaps the most visible consequence of growth in Post Falls is increased traffic.
During peak hours, cars often back up on I-90 exit ramps at Highway 41, wait through several lights at major intersections throughout the city, and circle around on detours during road improvements.
Since May 2004, the Idaho Transportation Department has been holding public hearings and studying numerous options to alleviate two of the biggest traffic problems in Post Falls: the I-90, Highway 41 and Seltice intersection; and the lack of an I-90 north-south overpass between the Spokane Street and Highway 41 exits.
Hal Campbell, who has lived in Post Falls since 1985, can remember when Highway 41 was two lanes. Under all of the ITD options, Highway 41 would expand from its current four lanes to six.
Campbell, an independent insurance adjuster who looks at traffic patterns, thinks that approach is simply a Band-Aid, because it doesn’t deal with the underlying problem: the dearth of north-south roads across Post Falls that would help take some of the traffic burden off Highway 41.
Though the ITD proposals plan for an overpass or interchange at Greensferry Road, Campbell believes there needs to be more than one other alternative to properly address traffic now and in the future.
Highway 41 is a major thoroughfare in Post Falls and is becoming more so as its northern section is developed. The city has almost finished extending sewer lines up Highway 41 to Poleline Avenue.
At least one business on that highway is unhappy about how Post Falls is going about its development.
Bob and Pat Crossman, owners of The Crossroads, a country-western dance club, were forced to be annexed to the city because their club is located along that extension area. As a result, their property taxes immediately increased $800.
“For a small business, that’s a lot of money to come up with,” said Bob Crossman, who opened his business in Kootenai County 10 years ago specifically because it was on county land.
Crossman said he hasn’t benefited from being in the city. “What have we got, besides paying more taxes, that we didn’t have before? Nothing,” he said. The dance studio brings people from Spokane, Deer Park and Kellogg, Crossman added, who shop, eat and fill up on gas while they’re in the area. “We’re probably giving more to Post Falls than they’re giving to us.”
The Crossmans are bracing for the reassessment of their property after the sewer is completed.
City officials acknowledge that the Crossmans were forcibly annexed, an exception to their usual policy.
“It’s their total right to object,” Larkin said. “We’re not trying to force anyone out of business. But when you’re putting in public infrastructure, everyone has to participate.”
Still, the Crossmans said Post Falls’ continuing annexation of land reflects the city’s struggle with its image.
“Post Falls has always been a bedroom community,” Bob Crossman said. “I think they want to show the area what they can do.”
Post Falls resident Harley Barnhart doesn’t like the growth, but he understands why it came to the area.
“It was long overdue,” Barnhart said. “This was a great secret.”