Crowd expected for 'Coeur Terre' hearing
This sketch provided by the city of Coeur d'Alene shows the area of consideration for the proposed development by Kootenai County Land Company, LLC. A public hearing is set for Oct. 11 before the Coeur d'Alene Planning Commission.
COEUR d’ALENE — The city of Coeur d’Alene believes a lot of people will have a lot to say about one of the area’s largest proposed developments.
The Planning Commission has scheduled a six-hour public hearing from 3 to 9 p.m. in the Library Community Room on Oct. 11 on an annexation request by Kootenai County Land Company, LLC. If necessary, the hearing will continue the next day.
“We expect a large crowd since it is a large area (442.64 acres) with existing residential areas on the east and south,” wrote Hilary Anderson, community planning director.
Kootenai County Land Company is planning Coeur Terre, a residential community project that totals over 1,000 acres. At build-out, over 20 to 25 years, it would have about 4,500 living units.
The property that will be under consideration by the Planning Commission is north of Interstate 90, south of W. Hanley Avenue, and east of Huetter Road.
Plans on the Coeur d’Alene side include about 2,000 individual residential units, according to a previous Press report. A mixed-use commercial area will provide an additional 330 second-story units with commercial use on the ground level.
"We anticipate the property will be developed via individual site plans, subdivisions, and localized PUDs, wrote Melissa Wells, with Kootenai County Land Company, in a letter to the city of Coeur d'Alene.
The undeveloped land is zoned agricultural suburban. The annexation request calls for zoning change to allow for residential and commercial development.
The proposal is a mixture of zoning types, "predominantly single family residential, with smaller areas devoted to multi-family and a small commercial center," according to the application.
To help address the shortage of workforce housing, Kootenai County Land Company said it "commits to work with the City on solutions for 5% of the overall housing supply in the Coeur Terre Master Plan."
The project is 10 years in the planning. The Coeur Terre Master Plan incorporated feedback from 13 agencies, 26 departments and over 40 agency staff members, according to the developers.
"The applicant has met with the Coeur d’Alene School District #271 superintendents and their administrative staff since early 2020 to develop a plan for public schools," according to the application. "The master plan depicts a twenty acre middle school site located in the northeastern corner of the site and a ten acre elementary school site in the south central portion of the site."
A trail system and parks are planned.
Wastewater and transportation infrastructure master planning has been completed.
During the public hearing, comments will be limited to three minutes, and the room will be reconfigured to allow for the expected crowd.