Highway to Hayden

The downtown Hayden transformation started last year with sidewalks and street trees could rebuild more than a mile of Government Way over the next two decades into a pedestrian-centered urban core with storefronts along the street, parking in the back and enhanced public spaces.

Many of the changes are contingent on passage of a proposed Central Business District Overlay Ordinance. That ordinance would impose stringent building and design standards on properties flanking Government Way between Prairie Avenue and Miles Avenue.

It’s a bold effort for the city of 13,000 people – one that is not without controversy. While some tout the codes as a way to improve the city’s livability and economy; others say they are too restrictive and tie property owners’ hands when it comes to redeveloping their land.

Hayden would be the first North Idaho city to adopt the sorts of city center building codes found in larger Northwest cities like Portland and Seattle.

With the changes, Government Way could become the “heart and soul” of Hayden, said Community Development Director Lisa Key. “It won’t just be the strip of an old highway in a dying two-horse town.”

That strip is a product of its time.

Government Way grew up in the 1950s just as America was embracing the automobile. Unlike downtowns that were built before or at the turn of the 20th century, Hayden was designed for people to drive from place to place rather than walk. So drive they did.

Key said that led to an environment where people don’t really know each other and lack the sense of community that can be created by sidewalk interactions and downtown events in places like Coeur d’Alene and Spokane.

The city’s part of the project will be improving the downtown City Hall Park and building centralized parking facilities, said City Administrator Jay Townsend.

“We’re just trying to create the environment that’s ripe for investment,” Key said.

Developers will do the rest as they upgrade their properties according to new codes.

Some of the proposed code changes include requirements that buildings be within 10 to 20 feet of the street and have parking located on the side or rear, not in front. Signage would be restricted.

With the exception of the library, none of the buildings along Government Way currently meet the proposed standards, including the recently constructed Hayden Creek project. That means that property owners who want to redevelop their properties would have to start from scratch, demolishing existing buildings to build new ones.

Hayden attorney Ed Holmes recently found out about the proposed ordinance. He said the setback requirements and other standards would prevent him from adding onto a building he constructed less than two years ago.

Such restrictions on property owners amount to a taking, Holmes said.

“We have these outsiders coming in and telling us what our community should look like,” he said of the Portland firm hired to oversee the downtown plan. “They’re taking way too much on. It’s just like a 1,000-pound hammer coming down on the city of Hayden.”

The work may have been overseen by a Portland company, but the proposals all came from Hayden residents, both Key and Townsend said. They noted that focus groups, developers and citizens were there every step of the way.

“It’s not our vision. It was a community process,” Townsend said. “This is the vision the community has for itself.”