Downtown Cd'A parking plan OK'd

By BRIAN WALKER

Staff Writer

COEUR d'ALENE — Coeur d'Alene is moving ahead with addressing downtown parking concerns.

During a three-hour meeting on Tuesday night, the City Council unanimously decided to have staff move forward with implementing a plan for the McEuen and Memorial Field lots.

The plan, which was spearheaded by Mayor Steve Widmyer and will be implemented Jan. 1, will make parking in those areas more friendly to local traffic.

It will allow Coeur d'Alene residents to buy an optional annual permit for $10 that would give them up to two hours per day at McEuen or Memorial. The permit for Kootenai County residents who live outside Coeur d'Alene city limits would cost $20 per year. The fees would be used for administrative costs.

"This is the result of collaboration between constituents, the mayor and the Parking Commission," said City Administrator Troy Tymesen, who made the presentation to the council.

The council's decision came after the parking board last week recommended the plan be approved.

As it stands, all motorists, regardless of where they live, pay the same rates for the two parking areas. Current rates are $1 per hour for the McEuen and Memorial lots, $2 per hour for the museum lot, $3 per hour for Independence Point from May 1 to Sept. 30, and $2 per hour for Independence Point during the rest of the year.

Residents who live outside the county would continue to pay the hourly rates.

Widmyer said most local residents understand that parking fees pay for parks or parking facilities, though they also think local taxpayers deserve a better deal than people from outside the area.

The City Council heard concerns from residents last month about parking rate increases that were implemented May 1.

Council member Kiki Miller said that, while she supported the parking plan, she believes a 2017 parking study that recommends the city implementing a fully-paid system as downtown gets busier should have been considered.

"I know that this is an evolving process, but when we're fully ignoring expensive studies, we should make note of that," she said.

Miller added she believes that the parking matter also exposed how the city needs a communications professional again to help keep citizens informed.

The permit plan applies to the McEuen and Memorial lots only and is only an option. Residents won't be required to buy a permit to park downtown. Widmyer said 58 percent of downtown parking places, including on-street parking and the parking garage, already allow for up to two hours of free parking.

The permit cost is per calendar year.

Widmyer said permit holders will likely be given one shot to park in one of the lots for up to two hours each day, not for an hour in each lot.

During Ironman, Car d'Lane, the Coeur d'Alene Street Fair and the holiday light show, the fee structure, under the plan, reverts to $10 a day for everyone, Widmyer said.

"We agreed to normal parking prices during events, except for the Fourth of July," Widmyer said.

On the Fourth, the $20 fee for lot parking would remain in effect, as those funds help the Chamber of Commerce put on the fireworks show.

The plan also includes putting the city's parking services contract back out to bid. Diamond Parking has had the contract for more than 20 years. The last time the city put the contract out to bid was 2013.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, a man asked for clarification on whether revenue from the permits will be spent on administration or parks.

Widmyer said the funds will be used for administration, meaning less of the money will be spent on parks than in the past.

Atlas park update

The council also heard a presentation from Phil Boyd of Welch Comer Engineers on the Atlas waterfront park plan along the Spokane River.

The project will go out to bid on Aug. 29. Bids will be opened on Sept. 24 and the City Council will award the bid on Oct. 1.

"The construction market is as volatile as we've seen it, so we're hoping this will attract a lot of contractors and bids," Boyd said.

The project, estimated to cost $6.2 million, is expected to be completed next summer.

Boyd said the first priority will be the development of the park portion of the project.

"That has the most public value and, once a developer sees the park is real and the quality of it, it drives the value of the dirt up," Boyd said.

The project will receive funding from ignite cda, Coeur d'Alene's urban renewal agency.

In other business, the council:

- appointed Bruce Hathaway and Woody McEvers to the CDATV Committee and Jim Chapkis to the ignite cda (urban renewal) board;

- heard an update on the 275-acre Health Corridor master plan vision that would be anchored by Kootenai Health.

An economic feasibility study on the Health Corridor is expected to be completed by this fall for the city to possibly create an urban renewal district that would help fund the vision by the end of the year.

Plans for the corridor include an improved road network for mobilization, parking, pedestrian facilities, mixed uses that feature lodging, commercial and office uses and improvements to calm of traffic in adjacent neighborhoods.

Kaia Nesbitt, project manager, said that while it's a 20-year plan, the timeframe for the full buildout would likely be longer.

Urban renewal districts are an economic development tool to create jobs and spur activity with infrastructure improvements. It allows the city to be competitive with other regions to attract business, and the burden is on the developers for the district to be successful.

Urban renewal districts created by the city and administered by the URA have a base tax rate when the district is created. That base tax rate continues to be collected by the county and remitted to taxing entities over the life of the district.

As a district is improved, has new construction and increases in value due to improvements, the incremental tax created by those improvements in excess of the base tax is allocated to the URA to pay for the public improvements that have been made within the district.

Urban renewal would only be one source of funding for the plan, but project managers say without it the vision may not pencil out.