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Cd'A to look further at creating hospital urban renewal district

by Ralph Bartholdt Staff Writer
| December 20, 2018 12:00 AM

COEUR d’ALENE — The Coeur d’Alene City Council opted this week to move ahead with a proposal to further investigate whether an urban renewal district around the hospital is the best way to upgrade the facility and its surroundings.

Although the measure to make the corridor eligible for an urban renewal district was passed by a vote of 5-1, council members questioned the necessity of establishing another urban renewal district to funnel money into an area of heavy commerce and seeming modernity.

“This is a taxing district,” council member Dan Gookin, the council’s only “no” vote, said. “They can raise property taxes. They have bonding authority.”

Tom Hudson, a consultant for Panhandle Area Council, who presented to the City Council a report laying out the hospital corridor’s eligibility for urban renewal, said the crux of the issue is that the hospital corridor is cramped, there is little room for Kootenai Health to grow, and if it cannot grow with the help of urban renewal, which can assist in the consolidation of properties in the area, it could be required to move to another location with more room.

“I have often seen communities losing this central asset, community hospitals ... They are on decline,” Hudson said.

Just 88 community hospitals the size of Kootenai Health remain nationwide, he said.

By its interactions and cooperations with other health care facilities and providers, Kootenai Health has gone another route, Hudson said.

“It is building a regional medical center that right now is coming to a halt in its growth capacities,” Hudson said. “Either it is going to find ways to grow where it is — that’s going to be very tough — or it’s going to start growing in new locations and that’s the issue.”

The hospital could move to the Rathdrum Prairie, he said.

In order for it to remain at its current location, however, Hudson said an effort must be made to consolidate properties — 280-plus parcels, both commercial and residential, are located in what could become the health corridor — to allow for the growth of Kootenai Health.

Obsolete buildings operating as clinics, health care or retail businesses, or residences should be combined to make way for the hospital’s growth, Hudson said.

“In order for this facility to do what it needs to do, and have room for emergency services … it’s got to be able to have more density,” Hudson said. “The obsolete buildings in low density areas are counter to that interest — providing centralized growth that needs to be in this corridor.”

Kootenai Health’s role in the area’s economic viability and its ability to provide excellent service was not refuted, just the means by which to maintain or improve the campus and its facilities, council members agreed.

“We all support the hospital. We think it’s great,” Gookin said. “I think everybody up here recognizes that area needs more planning.”

Using urban renewal as a tool to sweep up property in the area however, didn’t sit well with Gookin.

“I think private property rights are really important in Idaho, and I think people, the 170 property owners, have rights to their properties,” Gookin said.

The eligibility report references that homes and buildings in the area are getting in the way of hospital expansion, Gookin said.

“You’re talking about businesses that employ people and provide services to customers,” he said. “I can’t step on those people. I represent those people.”

The council majority’s decision Tuesday was the first hurdle to considering an urban renewal district.

Urban renewal counsel, attorney Danielle Quade, said moving forward with the plan will allow for finding new funding sources, which don’t necessitate tax increment financing as its sole source.

“The only action taken tonight is to declare the area is eligible,” Quade said. “There is still quite a process. Nothing is set in stone at this time.”

The process includes gathering sources to develop a plan that could be brought to planning and zoning and the City Council. The city’s urban renewal agency, ignite cda, will help pay to put together a plan.