Atlas Mill Site on time, on target

Coeur d’Alene’s Urban Renewal Agency heard promising news at their monthly meeting Wednesday afternoon:

The Atlas Mill Site Initiative is proceeding as scheduled.

“I’m happy with our progress so far,” said Phil Boyd, president of Welch-Comer, the engineering firm working on the project. “We’re off to a good start. We’re still in the early stages, but I’m very optimistic about its development so far.”

The project, which will develop public and private space, is in the early stages of what is expected to be an eight-year endeavor to revitalize the area south of Seltice.

“Right now,” he said, “we’re in the pre-marketing phase. We’re developing brochures and marketing materials that we can use to spread the word through developers about bidding process.”

The brochures should be finished by mid-July, Boyd said, which will then lead to developer and builder outreach. By Aug. 21, Boyd expects ignite to see an official presentation detailing phase costs and more detailed timetables.

“Right now,” Boyd said after the meeting, “we’re on time and on target. We’re right on schedule.”

The initial stage of the Atlas Mill Site project also includes a rigorous permiting process from a variety of organizations. The agency has already received an encroachment permit from the Department of Lands, but they have not yet received a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, a formality Boyd expects to get resolved soon.

“We’ve done a tremendous amount of work with the various organizations to get on the same page,” he said. “We’ve worked closely with the local tribes, and we’ve worked with the Corps of Engineers to make sure we’re going about this the right way. I anticipate the [Corps] permit will come.”

The report wasn’t entirely good news for the agency. Boyd said they lost an expected $2,275,000 in grant money targeted to restoration. He explained to the board two reasons why the promise of funds never came to fruition.

“We’ve done a tremendous amount of groundwork with the Restoration Partnership to make sure we’re making this a very targeted request and trying to comply with their grant application requirements. The feedback we received is that their application process is brand new. This is the very first time they’ve done that, so they’re starting to define what their criteria is.”

The second reason deals with usage more than formality. “They categorized this project as a human use project,” he explained, “not an environmental restoration project.”

“It’s unfortunate,” ignite Executive Director Tony Berns said. “But we’ve structured it in a way that we can afford some flexibility to continue forward.”

The flexibility, Berns and Boyd both explained, comes from the manner in which ignite structures projects, allowing both the ignite board and the City Council to remove or phase certain elements of a project in order to continue moving forward.

“It’s one of the reasons we’re able to come in under budget,” Boyd said. “Most boards will get a bid and have to decide: ‘The cost is this much. You can either have all of it, or you can have none of it.’ We’re very proud we’re able to come under budget so often because we give the council options.”