Planning commission sinks River's Edge

COEUR d’ALENE — An hour before midnight Tuesday, after lengthy deliberations in a meeting that had already lasted almost six hours, Coeur d’Alene’s planning commission kiboshed a proposal for an 870-unit apartment complex along Seltice Way near the Spokane River.

The city planning commission denied two requests by the developer of the River’s Edge apartments, including the denial of a request for a special use permit allowing a high-density, R-34 designation that would have allowed for the 870-unit development along the Spokane River corridor, and it denied a proposed limited design planned use development.

Commission members did, however, approve a zoning change from R-12, a lower density, residential use, to C-17, a mixed-used designation that allows more residential units per acre as well as commercial and industrial uses.

The denials came in a public hearing that began at 5:30 p.m. in the city library that had dwindled to around 100 people from a standing-room-only crowd of more than 200 people earlier in the evening.

Commission members denied the special use permit and PUD requests “without prejudice,” which gives developer Lanzce Douglass another chance to reapply for the permit and PUD next year.

Prior to the commission’s decision, River’s Edge project engineer Todd Whipple spent about an hour laying out the attributes of the proposed 26-acre Spokane River development on land next to the city’s Atlas Mill site.

Whipple said despite its high density, five-story apartments, the project would provide 27 percent open space — 17 percent more than required — and allow 40 feet of public easement along the river for the length of the development.

Despite building multiple five-story rental units along the river, the buildings, as seen from Seltice Way, which lies at a higher elevation, appear to be much smaller, and the project will provide view corridors from the road to the river, he said.

The plan was favored by the city because it included a land trade between the city of Coeur d’Alene and River’s Edge, unifying the Atlas site, and adding an easement along the river corridor for a public trail that extends east to downtown.

Without it, the city will lose a 5-acre parcel inside its Atlas site, which belongs to River’s Edge. The agreement called for trading the 5-acre chunk to the city in exchange for city-owned railroad right of way inside the apartment site.

Commissioners one at a time expressed disapproval of the development designed to make use of the allowed space under an R-34 designation.

“I can’t believe how densified this is,” commission member Lynn Fleming said. “I have a difficult time wrapping my head around the impacts to the river and its impacts to views … you cannot see the river except for one narrow center line.

“I would hate to see this from the water, I think it’s beyond overbuilt, I’m thinking Brooklyn from New York harbor,” Fleming said.

Residents of the units would likely shop in Post Falls and not be part of Coeur d’Alene, she said.

“These people are not coming to Coeur d’Alene to shop,” she said. “These are not feeding into our city, they are feeding out of our city.”

Commissioner Jon Ingalls said developing the property was an opportunity, but he struggled with its size, mass and scale — and with its lack of compatibility with the neighborhood.

“There are huge positives here, I don’t think we can lose track of the opportunity,” Ingalls said. “If there’s even an opportunity here for some middle ground … how about 650?”

The applicant cannot have commissioners revisit another application for 12 months.