LCDC delays McEuen decision

COEUR d'ALENE - After hearing a presentation by Team McEuen on Thursday afternoon, Lake City Development Corp., said it would wait until next week to decide on bankrolling roughly $4 million in additional amenities for the McEuen Park makeover.

The board lauded that the city of Coeur d'Alene is requesting the additional funding not because of cost overruns, but to cover items that were earlier removed from the project design and only recently reinserted.

"That's critical," said member Brad Jordan, at the specially-called board meeting in the Coeur d'Alene Public Library.

Rod Colwell, board member and chair of the finance committee, said LCDC would have the financial capability to cover the extra amenities.

But he still showed reservations. If the urban renewal board agrees to the additional funds, it could mean LCDC wouldn't be able to fund future projects in the Lake District.

"What we have to think about is the project we don't even know about that comes down the chute in two years," Colwell said. "It's just a decision on how we allocate our resources."

The Coeur d'Alene City Council agreed earlier this month to ask the urban renewal agency to fund additional amenities for the McEuen project that had been trimmed from the park project before being added back on recently.

The city is asking the agency to kick in between $3.8 to $4.2 million for the added features.

After already pledging $12 million for the park's makeover, LCDC would nearly exhaust the $16.75 million line of credit it obtained to support the project if it agreed to the additional request.

Team McEuen, the park designers, rolled out a PowerPoint tour of the park's improved design.

The schematics included a Front Avenue promenade, which the team touted as a possible farmers market venue. The promenade would include a sundial and stair towers to parking below.

Elevators to parking would also be available.

The design portrayed uncovered and covered parking, which would have unmanned pay kiosks, with Front Avenue parking and the developed lot on the east end of the park.

The existing 595 parking slots would increase to approximately 697.

The Centennial Trail would weave throughout the park.

Slides also depicted a roughly 200-foot-long grand plaza and waterfront promenade on the west end of the park, which landscape designer Dell Hatch identified as a potential gathering location.

Among the added amenities, a grand stair would lead into the plaza, a crescent-shaped veterans memorial would be included by the waterfront at the grand plaza, and a freedom tree that can be lighted during the holidays would be fixed where the park's historic bell now sits.

Also in the design would be basketball courts and tennis courts with pickleball striping.

The game courts and park trails will be lit at night, said Dick Stauffer, park designer.

The designers compared the $12.9 million construction cost estimate of the 60 percent project design to the 90 percent design with added amenities, estimated to cost $16.8 million.

The difference is $3.8 million.

The city will make a formal request for LCDC to fund the more comprehensive design at the board meeting at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 16, in the community room of the library.

At a meeting earlier in the day, the city council decided to pursue a pedestrian-friendly Front Avenue, with closed Second and Third streets and limited vehicle traffic.

The council also agreed on making ingress and egress points up and down Front Avenue and intersecting streets, replacing six curb cuts.

The motivation was public safety, so drivers wouldn't drive over sidewalks in the pedestrian area.

The two businesses most affected by the decision are Coeur d'Alene Mines and Wigget's Antique Marketplace.

Instead of a curb cut, Wigget's will have a loading zone in the new plan.

Owner Johnny Berry opposed the design, citing that the change will make loading more difficult.

"Hogwash," Berry called the city's decision.