Development dilemma In approving projects, school impact ignored

COEUR d’ALENE — The Coeur d’Alene School District superintendent wants to partner with the city when it comes to considering future developments.

Superintendent Steve Cook said record growth has severely stressed schools in the district, so he’s asking the city to consider imposing impact fees on developers to mitigate the effect their projects have on the school system.

“While the district is highly supportive of positive growth and responsible development, decisions by the planning commission and City Council should not continue to be made without consideration of the overall impact on the school district,” Cook said at a recent public hearing. In that hearing, the planning commission considered — and denied — a high density apartment project, River’s Edge, in southwest Coeur d’Alene.

The R-34 zone change the developer wanted would have added about 180 students to the schools serving the area, according to estimates.

The students would attend Lakes Middle School, Winton Elementary School or Lake City High School, Cook said.

“All of the schools are either at or over capacity,” Cook said.

School districts aren’t set up to compete on the open market with developers for the right locations for schools, Cook said. He used fire halls and city parks as examples of public projects that are completed with consideration from local municipalities.

“Going forward, we encourage the city to fairly assess the impacts for all projects on schools,” Cook said.

He asked the city to partner with the district to overcome the shortsightedness that has resulted in overfull schools throughout the district, and asked the city either to require developers to pay impact fees or to set aside land to mitigate the effect of their development on schools.

Planning commissioner Lynn Fleming said that although some states allow municipalities to obligate developers to pay for schools, Idaho has no such mandate.

The commission’s decision to deny the high density River’s Edge project likely took the area’s overcrowded schools into consideration, but it was one of several concerns voiced by citizens at the project’s public hearing.

“Even though we know it’s a problem, we don’t get to weigh in on it,” Fleming said.

Another recent high density apartment development along Ramsey Road put an additional stress on the neighborhood’s schools, but because consideration for schools was not one of the review items for approval of the project, it was approved.

“It’s the elephant in the room,” Fleming said.

Many apartment projects target single parents with children who will attend nearby schools. Adding school impacts to considerations for developments is an imperative, Fleming said.

“It’s something we need to take up with local representatives,” Fleming said.