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Seltice shuffle

| October 13, 2018 1:00 AM

By RALPH BARTHOLDT

Staff Writer

COEUR d’ALENE — The city wants to reclaim a stretch of dirt it already owns.

The city of Coeur d’Alene and its development agency applied to have vacated a stretch of right-of-way along the south side of Seltice Way bordering the former Atlas Mill site.

The narrow swath lies between the bicycle path and the newly acquired city property.

The vacation request, heard by the public works committee this week, is part of a bookkeeping process for the former mill property and will add as much as 260 feet between the property along the south side of Seltice Way to the Atlas Mill site.

The right-of-way was originally part of Highway 10, constructed in 1926, from Coeur d’Alene to the Idaho-Washington boundary. It became Seltice Way in 1971 when the throughway was replaced by Interstate 90, according to the city.

When the Atlas Mill property was purchased by the city last spring, the right-of-way strip — totalling about 2.3 acres — came with it.

“Right now, we’re giving it to ourselves,” said city engineer Dennis Grant. “In the future, when these are sellable lots, it will make them larger.”

Grant, who presented the vacation proposal to the committee, said several property owners, including Coeur d’Alene Honda, have had right-of-way vacated along Seltice, which recently underwent widening and expansion.

Committee members approved the vacation and set a Nov. 6 public hearing.

“I see it more as a repurposing of land,” said committee member Dan English. “It doesn’t make any sense to have it hanging out there of truly no value.”

The city purchased the 47-acre Atlas Mill property for $7.85 million in May with plans to develop it into a public riverfront park as well as a housing and commercial development.

“This will help us out in the future,” Grant said.