Building height proposal gets commission’s OK

The Coeur d’Alene Planning Commission unanimously approved Monday a revised proposal to limit downtown building heights, sending the proposal to the City Council for review and final approval.

The proposal, aimed at stopping urban sprawl by increasing downtown density, offers a formula for determining building height that’s based on the size of the lots and the number of square feet each lot can support. The revisions limit buildings to the same height as the previous proposal, 220 feet, but changes what a developer must do to reach that height.

“This is not an ordinance to allow everything to go to 220 feet,” commission member Brad Jordan said. “Two hundred and twenty feet is the maximum.”

For a building to be taller than 75 feet, developers must include features that benefit the public, such as paintings, sculptures or courtyards. Each amenity increases the maximum height for the building by a specific amount.

The previous proposal called for developers to give cash for improvements such as city parks if they want their buildings at the maximum height of 220 feet, but city Planning Director Dave Yadon said that stipulation was removed by public recommendation.

“People did not like the cash contribution concept,” Yadon said.

The commission also removed the distinction between residential and commercial buildings, changed the separation distance for buildings taller than 75 feet high from 80 feet to 50 feet, and decreased from 20 feet to 10 feet the distance that building floors above 45 feet must be set back from the street.

The commission also specified that although some of the bonus features that can add to a building’s maximum height, such as parking and work force housing, are allowed to be away from the building site, they must be south of Interstate 90.

Commission member Mary Souza said it was important to specify where the amenities could be to ensure downtown developers aren’t rewarded for housing developments miles away from the city.

Of the approximately 10 people who attended Monday’s public hearing, those who spoke were mostly in favor of the revisions, though Coeur d’Alene resident Dennis Hinrichsen said he has serious concerns about traffic problems that have been ignored.

“Where are you going to get those people in and out of the city?” Hinrichsen said.

He said passing a plan that allows for off-site workforce housing encourages developers to push housing into existing neighborhoods, which will cause traffic problems for current residents.

“I’m not against the development downtown … just the lack of planning on all these issues,” Hinrichsen said.

But Jordan said road upgrades have improved traffic flow, and downtown traffic isn’t as bad as it was 40 years ago.

“I don’t see this traffic as something that needs to be looked at with alarm,” Jordan said.

Commission chairman John Bruning said restricting density to the downtown area as the plan calls for will prevent traffic problems all over the city.

“If we sprawl all over the Prairie, you’re going to see a lot worse traffic,” he said.