District approves Prairie purchase

COEUR d’ALENE — The school board met briefly Wednesday to formally approve purchase of 7.1 acres on Prairie Avenue to be used for a future school.

A combination of two residential properties on the south side of Prairie between Ramsey Road and the Hospice of North Idaho complex, the land appraised at $1,007,500 but sold for $1,120,000.

In a document given to the board, Superintendent Stan Olson wrote, “There is very little real property available and the District is facing significantly higher sewer fees, and potentially higher real estate prices if it does not proceed with the purchase at this time.”

Board chairman Casey Morrisroe said the board had talked about the land for months and it was now “time to pull the trigger or not.”

Board member Tom Hearn agreed with Olson’s description of the situation.

“We need to have land in the bank,” Hearn said.

With land in hand, the district could go to the voters in a few years and ask for bond money to build a school there, Hearn said.

“I have a little concern about paying 11 percent over the appraised value, to be honest,” said board member Lisa May. She urged the board to continue its due diligence on the property. The land will cost $1.7 million when development costs are included, she said. Architect John Mueller said last week that a traffic study will need to take place, and a $250,000-$350,000 traffic light might be required at the property location.

May also argued that even if the district ran a bond relatively soon, the district wouldn’t build on the land for about four years. She asked whether the district could ask the landowner for a 30-day extension on the purchase.

While an extension was possible, Morrisroe said “anything could happen” in the next 30 days.

Maintenance director Bryan Martin said the real estate market is going crazy right now.

“There’s a possibility that this thing could explode, and if it does you don’t want to be the one who is holding the bag,” he said. “I don’t think we’re going to get hurt” if the district moves forward with the purchase.

Morrisroe said that while the district is paying “at the high end of market value,” and the cost of a traffic light seemed difficult when he first heard about it, after listening to Mueller at last week’s board workshop, Morrisroe came to believe that a traffic light might be very reasonable, and that land prices might not be high relative to what they could be in the future.

May countered that if the district bought the land above its appraised value now, and a later traffic study showed that the location was not ideal due to safety reasons, the land could be a liability.

Morrisroe agreed with board member Dave Eubanks that despite the variables, “they’re ones we can deal with. I think we have to have this property for the future of this district.”

Morrisroe said he hoped the district would buy the Prairie Avenue property as well as the Huetter Road property that’s under review. The district might acquire up to 57 acres for about $50,000 per acre, with a total price between $2 million and $2.5 million, he explained.

Hearn concurred that the Prairie Avenue property is a four-year solution, and the property on Huetter Road could become a long-term solution.

May said she’s uneasy with the decision because the Prairie property is where the district should be building a new school now, rather than at the Hayden Lake site.

The board voted 4-1 to approve the purchase, with May the only vote in opposition.