Health corridor district considered

COEUR d’ALENE — Updating Coeur d’Alene’s health corridor may come down to the vigor of its transportation system.

The woeful road system around Kootenai Health is among the constraints impeding further growth in the health corridor — the area near the hospital comprised mostly of health-related businesses and services, according to a recently completed report.

The corridor and its entities want to be considered for a new urban renewal district. The latest Urban Renewal Eligibility Report, which breaks down the value of forming a district there, will be discussed at next week’s City Council meeting.

Council members last summer put the brakes on a proposal to consider the corridor for urban renewal status, but gave the nod for the hospital to hire a consultant to prepare an eligibility report. That came with the understanding that the City Council would ponder a report once it was completed.

According to the now-completed report, the health corridor’s competitiveness is dependent on efficient and convenient traffic access, as well as the area’s capacity and infrastructure.

The corridor, developed in the 1950s, has sprawled into a series of health-related components, checkered with residential properties and retail businesses in an area bisected by Ironwood Drive between Government Way and Northwest Boulevard. It is constrained by Interstate 90 at its northern edge.

A proposed Urban Renewal District boundary could encompass a swath of land north of I-90 along Appleway and south to Davidson Avenue, but no concrete boundary has yet been determined.

The Kootenai Health campus is almost 90 percent built out, according to the latest estimates. To keep up with anticipated growth in the county, the facility anticipates needing more health care providers, which will require medical office buildings and parking garages.

According to the eligibility report prepared by the Panhandle Area Council, the 287 unique parcels in the corridor — with an assessed value of over $300 million — could be negatively impacted if facilities were required to move out of the area to accommodate growth.

Forming an urban renewal district would help pay for upgrades including transportation system upgrades, parking garages, sanitary sewer and property consolidation, according to the report.

During a council meeting in June, council members were taken aback by a proposal to consider the corridor for urban renewal status.

“This was the first time I heard this,” said council member Dan Gookin at the time. “I would like to see a lot more transparency in this process, because my experience with government is when we do eligibility reports, they always come out thumbs up.

“I would like to supply everyone with more information,” he said.

The City Council was split last summer over urban renewal consideration. They will get another chance Tuesday to either direct ignite cda — the city’s urban renewal agency — to draft an urban renewal plan for the area, or to further postpone consideration of the corridor as an urban renewal district.