WHY ignite cda? Writer rebuts Press editorial

At Range, we spend all of our time working on ways to help our clients communicate and present themselves clearly through branding, websites, ads, etc., in order to connect with their audiences.

After years of watching Lake City Development Corporation produce dry communications that told a very stuffy, corporate story about what they do, I approached the board about producing an educational video with graphics to help tell the story. That project was accomplished, and everyone felt like the content was good. The organization used it in presentations and it was on the website, but all in all only a small percent of the population saw it.

Time passed. My partner, Adam, and I then decided to re-approach the agency about refreshing its identity, their brand voice and how they present themselves to the community. A catalyst for this was a small group of very vocal agency critics who sought to discredit them and knock down the projects they were partnering on - projects such as Riverstone, the Kroc Center (yes, these people were definitely against this), McEuen Park, and even the Centennial Trail back in the day.

We feel that the community deserves to understand how the city has been able to provide these many projects through the urban renewal agency partnership. We hope others will recognize urban renewal as a creative tool to help our community remain vibrant.

Thus, working alongside the LCDC Communications Committee, we have worked to move the position of the organization away from being a "Development Corporation" because 1. the agency does not develop anything and 2. it was a very stuffy feeling entity that communicated in a business like way about these amazing projects, from which our citizens are benefiting greatly. Unfortunately, it feels like the general public simply tunes this subject out.

Mike Patrick, the Coeur d'Alene Press managing editor, wrote an editorial, published on June 24, 2015, stating, "A name change and blast campaign isn't likely to alter residents' perception or suddenly pique interest where none existed before..." Here is where I beg to differ. When we conducted research through Robinson Research, the evidence was clear that the names "Lake City Development Corporation" and "LCDC" have very low awareness among the public. However, the projects the agency partnered on are well-known and viewed favorably.

We began looking around the country at what other urban renewal agencies are doing and found Littleton, Colo. Their urban renewal agency is called "Lift Littleton." That made perfect sense to us as a great example of how to position LCDC in order to gain traction with constituents. It became our goal to find a word that is descriptive of what they do, use it as their name and move away from the misleading, stuffy "Lake City Development Corporation."

We went to work and spent weeks researching, brainstorming, presenting and refining our lists of name suggestions with the agency's Communications Committee. In the end, they landed on the word "ignite" because that is what their partnership funding does; it helps ignite great projects which lead to further private investment.

Public investment leads to private investment. Look at Riverstone, for example. John Stone had a dream to turn that old mill and mining pit deserted along the Spokane River into something great for the community. The LCDC board decided to reimburse roads and sewers (necessary public infrastructure) if he was really serious. Well, he was very serious. The commitment to reimbursement a certain amount of the developer's public infrastructure costs helped get John Stone's giant dream off the ground. Then it took his massive, private investment to turn it into the success it is today. So, whenever you go to the park or a movie - please realize the city couldn't have afforded to do the development... but with the help of some urban renewal funds, a private developer swung the bat and now we have the successful live, work and play district known as Riverstone.

We are working to elevate everyone's knowledge of how some great things are happening in our town. My family uses the parks, Kroc, Centennial Trail, library, movie theater, etc... and we LOVE every minute of it. Our community has come a long way. Our city leaders have been visionaries. Using our urban renewal agency, now known as ignite cda, is a terrific mechanism to ignite private investment and create wonderful public spaces in our community.

Eden Irgens is an owner of RangeNW in Coeur d'Alene.