Hearing set for 870-unit apartment complex

After being denied by the city’s planning commission, the developer of River’s Edge, a proposed 870-unit apartment complex on the Spokane River, is hoping the Coeur d’Alene City Council will give his plan a thumbs up.

Spokane developer Lanzce Douglass is appealing a December decision by the Coeur d’Alene planning commission that denied a special use permit for a high-density building zone and multiple, five-story rental units adjacent to Coeur d’Alene’s Atlas Mill property.

As Douglass and his engineers prepare to plead their case to the City Council at a March 5 hearing, in an effort to overturn the planning commission’s decision, opponents of River’s Edge are joining forces.

Roger Smith is no less resistant to the plan today than when he spoke out against it at last year’s planning hearing.

Smith, a retired engineer who lives in Coeur d’Alene, is a member of “We the People of Coeur d’Alene,” a newly formed group that sees itself as a clearinghouse of public opinion.

“Our initial concerns have focused on challenging the proposed Rivers Edge Apartments,” Smith said. “But (we) will take positions on other local issues as we deem necessary.”

Smith calls the results of a recent traffic study untenable. The study includes the area around Riverstone, including the Seltice Way corridor that connects the city to the proposed Rivers Edge parcel.

“The findings of this report are dire regarding future traffic — especially on Northwest Boulevard,” Smith said. “The heavy traffic that would be generated from the proposed ... project, combined with its negative impacts on already crowded schools, and its poor riverfront aesthetics, make this project a bad fit for Coeur d’Alene.”

Smith and his group think the traffic generated from the occupants of 19 high-rise buildings will have a gridlock effect on the city’s already congested thoroughfares. Area schools, already at capacity, would be further stressed if the development is allowed, Smith said, and 19 high-rise buildings with 850 apartments would be aesthetically incompatible.

“For this unique riverfront site, (it) would be undesirable from a visual standpoint,” he said.

Smith’s concerns were voiced by the public at the Dec. 12 planning commission meeting, as well as by the commissioners who unanimously voted down the proposal, citing additional concerns.

Commissioner Lynn Fleming was taken aback by the proposal’s density.

“I have a difficult time wrapping my head around the impacts to the river and its impacts to views,” Fleming said.

Commissioner Jon Ingalls said developing the property is an opportunity, but the current proposal is just too dense, and too big.

“There are huge positives here,” Ingalls said. “If there’s even an opportunity here for some middle ground ... how about 650?”