Two Rathdrum urban renewal districts proposed

By BRIAN WALKER

Staff Writer

RATHDRUM — Rathdrum's urban renewal agency that was formed nearly two years ago is rolling up its sleeves reviewing two proposed districts.

The proposals include 115 acres at the southeast corner of Lancaster and Greensferry roads near the Rathdrum Power plant and 40 acres at the northwest corner of Boekel and Meyer roads.

The 115-acre site, owned by Beyond Green Inc. and developer Philip Wirth, is intended to spur on industrial development. The 40-acre property owned by developer Bob Head is geared toward commercial and apartment complex growth.

"While both meet a lot of the same eligibility requirements, the projects would be totally different," said Leon Duce, the urban renewal agency's administrator.

Urban renewal districts created by a developer, city or other proponent and administered by an urban renewal agency 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 goes to the URA to pay for the public improvements that have been made within the district.

In most cases, the tax increment received by the agency is used to reimburse proponents who have completed and paid for the improvements and dedicated them to the city prior to reimbursement.

Duce said there are gas and power lines on both sites that create hurdles to development, making them "disadvantaged," and thus eligible for an urban renewal district. Eligibility studies have been completed for both proposals and now feasibility studies are underway.

After the feasibility studies are completed this year and a draft urban renewal district plan is developed, public hearings will be held by the urban renewal agency and possibly the city council for final approval.

"If they don't pass the initial reviews or the urban renewal board, they stop there," Duce said.

Duce said the 40-acre proposal has been scrutinized because apartments are proposed for a portion of the property along with a gas station and coffee shop. Many urban renewal followers don't believe the intent of urban renewal law was to spur on residential development and therefore it can be a hot-button issue or gray area.

"Apartment complexes meet commercial zoning requirements because they are in the business of renting units," Duce said. "But they're also a residential project because people are living there."

Duce said the city council had concerns that the apartment factor may not be the proper way to form a district and therefore the city did not cover the cost of the feasibility study.

However, Duce said Head believes the proposal qualifies under urban renewal law and funded a feasibility study to keep it moving forward.

"It's definitely not a slam-dunk type of situation," Duce said. "It has a lot of hurdles to go through. The city council has no interest in using urban renewal for residential projects. We want urban renewal districts to create jobs."

The original plan was to have the proposed district more than 200 acres before it was scaled back to 40.

"(The city) didn't feel it was appropriate to do the whole thing," Duce said. "It made no sense to start a district without a project (on most of the land) so we pulled back. Once a district is formed, your clock (on the district life) starts. It would have just wasted time."

The 115-acre Beyond Green site was annexed into the city last year.

"The developer has financed all of the costs to determine if it should be a district," Duce said.

Duce said both proposals are being considered carefully, especially since urban renewal has been scrutinized statewide.

"When we started up urban renewal we agreed to take it cautiously and that's what we're doing," he said. "We don't want to enter into anything that's not beneficial to everybody."