BUILDING HEIGHTS: Damage is done

You can’t plan for the past. You can plan for the future but that needs to be done ipso facto, now, not later.

Yes, I recall the days when Coeur d’Alene’s downtown business owners were fearful, repeatedly complaining that, with Silver Lake Mall on the horizon, downtown would be finished. This continued meeting after meeting at the town’s business owners meetings. After one of those meetings I returned to my office, looked up and called several prominent owners of downtown space and set up a meeting. Thus was born Coeur d’Alene, the Coeur d’Alene Development Association. A number of ideas were put forth including that, as the article points out, a denser population in and around the downtown area was needed.

Another notion was for some re-routing of streets and creation of pedestrian areas. What we did not have in mind was high rise after high rise until now when almost if not all property is spoken for, our skyline is forever changed and Sherman is commonly clogged with traffic. Balance should have been the word of the day. Unfortunately, I was transferred out of the downtown area soon after so was not part of that ongoing process.

Now the damage is done. The time for discussion on potential height restrictions for downtown came long ago. Can anything be done for the future to redeem and retain some of the lost and wonderful flavor of our downtown? That should be an integral part of that discussion as should development of the greater Coeur d’Alene area.

PAT TEBO

Hayden Lake