Complexes finding a home in Post Falls

POST FALLS — A 265-unit apartment complex planned for south of Interstate 90 in Post Falls is one of the latest large multi-family project applications to the city.

Plans for the 18-acre first phase of Woodland Meadows on the south side of Fourth Avenue just east of Idaho Veneer have been submitted. Phase I includes nine total buildings, including an office and 162 units.

The application is going through the city's site plan review process, which typically takes six to 12 weeks to complete.

A public hearing on the project will not be held because the property was earlier zoned multi-family and hearings were held at that time. Construction on the project is expected to start this year.

"If multi-family is going in, I'd much rather see it planned for and approved up front such as this," Mayor Ron Jacobson said.

Eric Olson, listed as the project applicant on the site plan review application, referred questions to the property owner, A&A Construction and Development in Spokane. Multiple messages with A&A, both this week and last year after it purchased the property from Idaho Veneer, were not returned to The Press.

The zoning allows up to 18 units per acre. The property is vacant.

Jacobson said that as of about a month ago, 579 new multi-family units had either been approved or were going through the city's review process.

The flurry, he said, has been a bit of an eye-opener.

"Realtors say we need more, but I'm starting to wonder when is enough, enough," Jacobson said. "I'm concerned, with the number that are planned, if they're going to be sustainable. But I'd much rather see them master-planned like the one on the (former) Idaho Veneer property."

Multi-family proponents believe the projects will help support the area's growing population.

Meanwhile, with another large multi-family proposal called Plaza 41 in Post Falls, Kirk Kappen is appealing an earlier recommendation to deny a special-use permit to construct 68 multi-family units at Primrose Lane and East Central Avenue behind Wendy's off Highway 41.

The appeal hearing will be held April 3 at 6 p.m.

The planning commission recommended that multi-family housing would not be compatible with the adjacent industrial land uses and lead to traffic issues. However, the appeal states that wouldn't be the case.

"The development of the land in question as multi-family would have a smaller impact on the adjacent transportation system than if it were to be developed similar to the adjacent commercial uses," attorney Jillian Caires wrote in a letter to the city. "Traffic impacts will be mitigated as required by code by the collection of traffic impact fees."