NIC boat launch floated

COEUR d'ALENE - The answer to one of the greatest challenges faced by the city of Coeur d'Alene as it moves toward redeveloping McEuen Field might be found right around the corner, in the education corridor.

Doug Eastwood, the city's parks director, presented North Idaho College trustees Wednesday with a proposal to construct a city boat launch on the former DeArmond mill site property, on land now owned by the college. It would replace the downtown Third Street boat launch located off Front Street at McEuen Field.

Eastwood asked trustees at their regular monthly meeting for "conceptual approval" for planners to move ahead with exploration of the mill site as an alternative location for the boat launch that now sits between Tubbs Hill and The Coeur d'Alene Resort.

"It's going to be a while though before we can conclusively say that this is the spot, but it looks like it could work," Eastwood said.

The proposed launch would use 3 of the 17 acres owned by NIC on the corridor, and would sit just east of the wastewater treatment plant on the Spokane River.

Preliminary plans include 50 boat parking stalls and 20 stalls for vehicles without trailers. There would be a boat prep area, restrooms and a picnic area.

The Third Street launch now provides 47 vehicle trailer parking stalls.

Entrance to the corridor boat launch would be along Hubbard Avenue from a signalized intersection planned for Northwest Boulevard, providing an easier, safer access route than boaters face now at the downtown dock, Eastwood said.

The new launch is within a mile of the Third Street launch.

"It creates a usable buffer between the campus and the wastewater treatment plant," Eastwood said.

As far as increased traffic, Eastwood said the new boat launch will be used most during the periods when less college students are present on campus - late spring, summer and fall, and mainly on the weekends.

"The benefit there, as it goes into the shoulder season on both ends, is that parking area is less and less used, to the point where it's hardly used at all," Eastwood said. "It becomes great overflow parking for any event that may occur at the college if you had a need for it."

Eastwood anticipates it will take about a year to work through what will be an extensive permitting process, if they decide to move forward.

They will be working with Idaho Fish and Game and other agencies, he said. They have heard that bull trout spawn in the area, so there will be a particular window during which they can work.

Planners have already preliminarily met with the Army Corps of Engineers, and had them review the design.

"We were looking for any fatal flaws that might be out there. We haven't found any," Eastwood said.

The city would likely compensate NIC for the property with a land trade that has yet to be determined.

Ultimately, the city would own the boat launch and assume all responsibility for it.

NIC trustees did not vote on the proposal, but gave the city verbal go-ahead to continue scrutinizing the corridor as a location for the launch.

"One of the premises of us buying the education corridor was that this be a public piece of property so that it could be developed under the direction of the community for many, many years to come," said NIC board chair Mic Armon.

NIC took ownership of the 17-acre mill site in December, after paying off a lease agreement it held with the NIC Foundation.

Prior to the transfer of the title, the college made $10,275,000 in lease payments to the foundation, a nonprofit that supports the college in its fundraising and endowment efforts. The foundation purchased the mill site property and secured financing for the purchase on behalf of the college in 2009.

A downtown waterfront with a view of Lake Coeur d'Alene that is unobscured by boat trailers and parked cars has been on the city's wish list for more than a dozen years. Removal of the Third Street dock would accomplish that, and is called for in the city's recently unveiled plan to redesign McEuen Field.

Eastwood said one of the "values" attached to the McEuen Field redevelopment plan is that facilities will not be displaced unless equal or better facilities are provided.