City, ignite talk housing

COEUR d’ALENE — Mayor Jim Hammond and some members of the Coeur d’Alene City Council on Monday expressed doubt about the city playing a role in developing “attainable housing” in the Atlas waterfront development.

“I am very suspect of public sector involvement in housing,” Hammond said during a workshop in the Library Community Room. “If we can’t do it on the private side, I’m not sure we can get it done.”

Councilman Dan Gookin said the city does well with parks, streets and public safety.

“If we try to do affordable housing it’s just going to be bad and a waste of money,” he said.

Council and Planning and Zoning members met with ignite cda, the city’s urban renewal agency, and its board to discuss the public’s role in developing attainable housing, and to gauge the council’s support for the creation of additional urban renewal districts. 

Ignite Executive Director Tony Berns wrote that he and the board were aware “that the housing product’s price points developed in Atlas are well above what many families in our community can afford.”

He said the board was interested in evaluating options on how ignite cda may be able to assist the community by developing opportunities to construct “Attainable Home Ownership,” which includes housing affordable to families earning 100% to 120% of the Area Median Income.

“We felt this was a good target demographic for the Atlas Mill site to shoot for,” he said.

Options on 9 acres valued at $7.7 million in Atlas Areas 11 and 20 include 40 four-plex units and 33 duplex units.

Price points are estimated at about $300,000 for a 945-foot fourplex; $475,000 for a 1,800-square-foot townhome; $425,000 for a 1,200-square-foot condominium and $380,000 for a 1,200-square-foot cottage.

The proposed project site is former home to what was known as Mt. Hink, a mountain of bark, sawdust and other debris from decades of industrial mill use. It was moved to the Idaho Transportation Department Ramsey Road site at a cost of more than $5 million.

Berns wrote that ignite has completed estimates and believes it is possible to develop attainable housing in the area if the land is provided at no cost to the developer, but with deed restrictions to assure the homes remain affordable.

The City Council decided to buy the old railroad property along the Spokane River in 2015 before buying the adjacent Stimson Atlas Mill site in 2018, together about $9 million.

The city transferred nearly 50 acres of that property to ignite cda for redevelopment. Ignite cda’s Atlas District was formed in December 2018 and is scheduled to close in 2038.

So far, ignite has reimbursed the city $1.72 million of the $9 million. Another $1.9 million is in this year’s River District budget for potential reimbursement. 

“If we do attainable housing it might be pushed back a few years. If we sell it at market rate we can pay it back a little bit quicker,” Berns said.

Planning and Zoning Commissioner Lynn Fleming said affordable housing at the Atlas property will not pencil out.

“Forget it,” Fleming said. “I cannot understand how we cannot see how much this costs.”

Councilwoman Christie Wood said she could support the government providing tax incentives and waiving permit fees to encourage affordable housing, but had concerns about a more extensive role.

“I do struggle with government being involved,” she said.

Wood said when she went to work for the city as a police officer that “at no point did I ever expect that the city of Coeur d’Alene would provide me with riverfront property.”

Wood said ignite cda has not previously mentioned creating affordable housing in the Atlas development, which is home to upscale homes, many in the million-dollar range.

“All those developers we sold to, they were not getting any breaks,” she said. 

Wood, Gookin and Hammond said they would prefer not to open new urban renewal districts.

“Let’s focus on the ones we currently have,” Hammond said. 

Councilwoman Kiki Miller said the government can work with private developers to create workforce housing without subsidizing it.

"It’s not the government paying for it," she said.

Miller said she supported the opportunity for the city to work with ignite cda to try and create avenues for home ownership. She said the city is becoming the next Sun Valley and Ketchum, unable to have affordable homes for local workers.

“We have to take a look,” she said. 

Hammond said he was open to such efforts but had concerns about taking one section of land in the Atlas development and making it affordable housing.

“When you start putting lower-income housing in one place, I don’t think that’s an effective strategy," he said.

Gookin said he would rather see urban renewal efforts focus on job creation rather than high-end homes for the wealthy.

“I believe in organic growth, capitalism. That’s the way it should be done,” he said.

Berns said ignite cda’s board is close to a decision on going with attainable housing or market rate housing for the 9 acres. While it wanted the city’s guidance on which option to take, its approval isn’t necessary.

Berns said what he heard primarily from the council was, "Attainable housing might not be the best choice for that site."

Hammond said if ignite cda needed a more definitive answer, the council could vote on it.