LCDC recaps busy 2009

COEUR d'ALENE - It was a year of initiatives.

Education, recreation, work force housing and simply place making initiatives headlined Lake City Development Corp.'s list of 2009 accomplishments, as the urban renewal board helped revamp entire sections of town, pledged support to collapsed buildings, improved schools, and worked with multi-agency partnerships to ensure future community goals are still moving forward.

"We're very proud of those partnerships," said Tony Berns, LCDC executive director of the public and private joint efforts that allowed the board to help a number of projects, big and small, inside its two districts in 2009.

Perhaps the biggest partnership of the year was the completion of the revitalized Midtown project that the board had been working on for a couple of years. New sidewalks, street surfaces, trees and public art now cover the center section of town, giving the area a unique, artistic vibe.

"This was a very value-adding initiative for the Midtown area," Berns told the City Council during Tuesday night's annual report.

But the board spread much farther than aesthetic makeovers during the year, including helping the Sorensen Magnet School pay for a lift inside its building to make the downtown school Americans with Disabilities Act compliant, and planned its support for the Kootenai Youth Recreation Organization, which is rebuilding its ice arena after it collapsed under heavy snow.

That pledge should increase pubic benefits with the ice arena, and help area businesses recover lost revenue since ice-skating related events are no longer being hosted at the area's only ice rink.

LCDC also took steps during the year on plans that will benefit Coeur d'Alene in the coming years.

It moved forward with other partners in plans to secure the old Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad right of way running through downtown to incorporate into possible educational corridor redesigns.

It also demolished a house on Park Drive to pave the way for possible ingress and egress traffic opportunities for the education corridor near the North Idaho College campus, and continued to work with The Housing Company by purchasing land on Fourth Street in Midtown, which will help facilitate a planned-mix use workforce housing and retail building proposed to break ground at the end of 2010.

"Thanks to your committee for everything they do," Mayor Sandi Bloem said of the list of goals and accomplishments the board prioritized during the year. "They certainly put in lots and lots of hours for the community."

Berns said a priority of the board is continue the partnerships, especially for long-term goals such as working with the downtown to ensure vitality remains intact by possibly renovating older buildings, creating pocket parks, enhancing McEuen Field, or building a parking structure near the old federal building.

LCDC's next board meeting is at 4 this afternoon in the Community Room of the public library. Discussion on the KYRO funding request as well as a request for proposals for preliminary infrastructure designs for the education corridor are on the agenda.