CdA plans to trade land to lure Salvation Army

Fingers crossed, Coeur d’Alene community leaders are counting on public willingness to build and sustain a proposed $65 million Salvation Army Kroc Center project near the heart of the city.

Attaining some $5 million in local donations could be the nudge Coeur d’Alene needs to outbid up to seven other sites in the West for what organizers say is a badly needed recreation and social service resource. So far, backers have raised $1.4 million. City and agency officials met in Coeur d’Alene this week to discuss design plans for the proposed 104,000-square-foot center.

But long before the push for private support began, local officials helped smooth the way for the project by arranging a complicated land-swap deal that would deliver more than 12 acres of once-public property to the Salvation Army, free and clear.

The plan, detailed in a community group’s application for the center, basically would trade city-owned land valued at about $1 million for property of similar value now held by the Coeur d’Alene Parks Foundation, a private, nonprofit organization, officials said.

It would do so through a series of carefully vetted transactions aimed at ensuring that Coeur d’Alene avoids legal scuffles over church-state conflicts that have plagued similar Kroc center projects across the country.

“Our intent and concern was that we didn’t give anybody heartburn,” said Coeur d’Alene Mayor Sandi Bloem, an ardent backer of the project.

More specifically, city officials wanted to offer Salvation Army officials a suitable site without invoking constitutional prohibitions against government endorsement of religious groups, such as the Christian-based Salvation Army. Construction plans for the proposed $32.5 million center include a $2 million chapel that also can double as a 300-seat performance venue, officials said. Plans also call for a $32.5 million endowment.

“I think ‘heartburn’ might be a code word for someone suing us and having a legitimate claim that we have taken taxpayer money to pay for a religious organization in violation of the Constitution,” City Attorney Mike Gridley said. “And we haven’t.”

Instead, city officials said they’re simply swapping one asset for another, using the independent, nonprofit parks foundation as a conduit.

“It’s comparing apples to apples,” said Gridley. “We’re giving our apple to the parks foundation. They’re giving their apple to us.”

The issue has been a sticky one in communities across the country as government officials struggled to attract resources from the legacy of McDonald’s restaurant heiress Joan Kroc. In Salem, one of Coeur d’Alene’s regional competitors, Salvation Army officials declined to request a direct land grant to allow that city to avoid the appearance of church-state conflicts, according to news reports. Instead, Salem officials agreed to sell the land to the agency at fair market value and to pay for improvements in roads and other infrastructure requirements.

In Grand Rapids, Mich., opponents of a proposed Kroc center site questioned the sale of public land to a religious group, reports indicated.

Salvation Army Maj. John Chamness, who is leading the local project, said he didn’t believe such concerns were pertinent here.

Some community members wondered why city leaders were forced to consider the issue at all.

“Sure, it’s got a religious flavor. What’s wrong with that?” said Ron Hunter, pastor at the Coeur d’Alene Church of the Nazarene. “It’s not a problem if the citizens of a community agree it’s for our own good.”

Hunter’s view likely would be echoed by defensible case law, noted Scott Reed, a Coeur d’Alene lawyer. If the city’s actions were challenged, backers might cite “the Lemon Requirement,” a 1971 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. It held that such use of public resources is allowed if the intent is secular, if the government entity doesn’t advance religion through its action, and if it does not promote religious entanglements.

All of those requirements apply in the city’s consideration of the Kroc Center, city and agency officials said.

Operating costs for the center, estimated at $3 million annually, would come from interest on the endowment, user fees and memberships. Some 650 people are expected to use the Salvation Army center each day, but anyone who uses the center or its services won’t be required to adhere to any particular faith, officials said.

“Everybody recognizes that although this is a religious organization, it would have benefits for everyone,” Gridley said. “Even heathens like me.”