LCDC prioritizes fiscal year

COEUR d'ALENE - Long-term, creating or expanding districts isn't out of the question.

Short-term, McEuen Field and the Education Corridor are still tops.

Lake City Development Corp. prioritized its fiscal year 2011 planning list on Thursday during its annual Strategic Planning Review session, keeping the Education Corridor and McEuen Field projects at the top of next year's goals - just as both had been the year before.

This time around, however, breaking ground on both projects - not designing or studying them - is the goal.

"Implementation," said Jim Elder, board member, "is the next step."

The board included the goal of acquiring and planning public space inside the education corridor - which runs from Riverstone to Mullan Road - to augment the project that could break ground next year.

That includes planning along the old railroad right of ways along the property.

"I don't think the goals have changed and that's job creation," said Mayor Sandi Bloem. "But one of the grandest and most valuable assets Coeur d'Alene has is its public spaces."

Bloem asked the board keep in mind vacant buildings downtown and downtown pocket parks, potential projects that could add to the taxing base, as well as waterfront property, but said the Education Corridor should still be a top goal.

"We could see something happening there next spring and that's exciting," she said.

In fiscal year 2010, the board pledged up to $166,000 for engineering and traffic studies, which include Mullan Road and River Avenue, as part of fulfilling last year's goal with the education corridor project.

It also pledged this year up to $100,000 for the conceptual design of McEuen Field, which could also break ground next year.

The annual session is used to identify the direction future URD project spending should go - both long-term and for the coming fiscal year.

Thursday's meeting was at the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center, one of Coeur d'Alene's biggest partnership funding successes.

And the board's long-term goals remained intact, keeping its focus on education, workforce housing, public space, job creation and retention and parking.

Other familiar topics made the discussion, too, including the possibility of creating new districts or broadening existing ones. The idea would be to encompass both or either the east Sherman area of town and the 100-acre Atlas property site near Riverstone.

The board said it would be open to either idea should it get that far, but concrete development ideas haven't been pitched at either end to make a district financially feasible.

In fact, the economy is expected to slow things down next year.

"It will be a little quiet on that front for a while," said Tony Berns, LCDC executive director, on the possibility of job creation from new businesses due to the economy.

And Kootenai County Commissioner Rick Currie opposed the idea of expanding districts - although supported creating a new one - with news that it could hurt the taxing districts.

"We think that's extremely important," he said, adding taxing valuation could be down around 20 percent in some pockets of the county. "Especially right now."

But Steve Griffitts, Jobs Plus director, said businesses relocating could still be on the horizon, even if they're not immediately out.

He said one "unbelievably big company is showing interest in Coeur d'Alene."

"There's more demand to build in Coeur d'Alene than people understand," he said.