Agency agrees to level site proposed for Kroc Center

Coeur d’Alene’s urban renewal agency agreed Wednesday to borrow up to $500,000 to grade and level the former gravel pit designated as the site for the proposed Salvation Army Kroc Community Center.

The move is the latest effort to woo decision-makers in charge of choosing where to locate the proposed $65 million project.

“We need to show we have the means to get the land right,” Coeur d’Alene Mayor Sandi Bloem told members of the Lake City Development Corp. “Personally, I don’t want to look back in 10 years and say we left any rock unturned.”

LCDC members unanimously agreed to guarantee an estimated $500,000 to reconfigure about 12 acres of property at 2903 N. Ramsey Road. Director Tony Berns said LCDC would ask lenders for a line of credit based on anticipated tax increment revenues.

The money would pay to compress the entire site by about 4.5 feet and to haul in about 100,000 cubic yards of material needed to fill an existing pit, said Troy Tymesen, city finance director. Salvation Army officials recently surprised backers of the Coeur d’Alene project by asking that the site be leveled.

“The more we looked at the topography … it just made sense to make it level,” said Salvation Army Maj. John Chamness.

Earlier estimates put the cost of filling the pit at as much as $1 million, but compressing the site lowers that figure to about $600,000, said Tymesen. Bloem said an unidentified community member offered Wednesday to contribute $100,000 toward the costs of preparing the site.

Some LCDC board members questioned whether the agency should foot the bill.

“The community looks at LCDC as being a cash cow,” said board member Paul Anderson, who added later, “I don’t think that the agency should pour half a million dollars into this project. I don’t think it’s appropriate.”

While he supports the concept of the center, he urged that LCDC funds be used to support projects that increase tax increments, instead of efforts such as the Kroc project, which is exempt from taxes.

Wednesday’s agreement increases LCDC’s role in bidding for the Kroc project. The agency now owns the proposed site, which is valued at about $1 million. If Coeur d’Alene is selected, LCDC would swap the property for land of similar value now owned by the Coeur d’Alene Parks Foundation, a private, nonprofit agency.

That transfer is aimed at avoiding church-state conflicts inherent in city support of projects led by a religious group such as the Christian-based Salvation Army.

Because LCDC is effectively agreeing to improve its own property, it does not raise church-state conflict concerns, Bloem and Berns said Wednesday.

Coeur d’Alene is one of up to seven cities competing for a center granted through the legacy of McDonald’s heiress Joan Kroc. Community leaders will submit a final application to the Salvation Army on April 3; organizers could hear as early as mid-April whether they’ve been chosen.