Appeal hearing set on Marriott hotel

COEUR d’ALENE — Joan Woodard wasn’t pleased when a Marriott hotel proposed in downtown Coeur d’Alene was unanimously approved in January by the city’s Design Review Commission.

So she requested an appeal of the decision and will have a chance to argue her case in front of the City Council, which set the appeal hearing for April 16 in the Coeur d’Alene Public Library Community Room.

The City Council can affirm the decision of the DRC, reverse the decision, or remand it back to the DRC for further proceedings, said Hilary Patterson, Coeur d'Alene's community planning director.

The six-story development would be on a vacant lot at Sixth and Sherman. It’s not that the Coeur d’Alene resident opposes the idea of the hotel.

“It’s probably a pretty good site for a hotel,” she said in a phone interview with The Press.

But Woodard believes the public was not given sufficient notice and information about the project until it was too late, and the hotel was given a green light despite what she sees as conflicts with the principles of the city’s comprehensive plan.

“The comprehensive plan is supposed to be the guiding principle for how we envision our city to be developed. There are very specific things in the comprehensive plan that speak to this project," she said.

For instance, she said it refers to how the city values views and vistas.

“The City of Coeur d’Alene enjoys a rich setting of mountains, hills, rivers, streams, flatlands, and lakes. Preserving views and vistas both to and from these areas will help maintain Coeur d’Alene’s identity and ensure these assets remain over time. This includes not only the protection of the areas themselves but ensuring that the built environment does not increasingly limit visual access. Design guidelines and other development standards can help the City meet this goal,” states the plan, most recently adopted in 2022.

The development should not approved if, “it takes those away,” Woodward said.

The Design Review Commission's approval included conditions, such as a traffic study, pedestrian safety features, sidewalks being brought into ADA compliance and pedestrian enhancements on Sixth Street.

Developers have said construction could begin this summer and would take about two years to complete.

The hotel would have 131 rooms, 130 parking spaces, three stories of underground parking, a fitness center, rooftop bar and outdoor patio. Vehicles could enter and exit via Sherman Avenue and the alley.

About 60 people crowded into a conference room at City Hall for January's public hearing that lasted nearly three hours. Most spoke against it. 

They argued it didn’t fit with the historic character of downtown, lacked sufficient parking, would increase traffic, take business away from locally owned motels, put additional burden on police and parks and turn Coeur d’Alene into a Seattle or Portland.

But both DRC Chairman Tom Messina and Commissioner Jon Ingalls pointed out the six-member commission's authority was limited to whether the project met certain design criteria for the Downtown Core zoning district. Its impact on parking, businesses, character, police or taxpayers was not under their purview. 

According to a staff report, the project “satisfied the comprehensive plan’s desire for hospitality uses to help bolster Coeur d’Alene as a tourist destination and maintain the community’s friendly, welcoming atmosphere and its small-town feel.”

Woodard, who lives downtown, said the hotel would eliminate lake and mountain views and create untold traffic problems on Sherman Avenue and in the alley behind it.

She said the hotel should be unique to downtown Coeur d’Alene, rather than a “cookie-cutter” model that could be built anywhere.

Woodard also argued the community was not given enough notice of the project. Other than legal postings of signs on the property and in legal notices in The Press, “no information was forthcoming," she said.

The Design Review Commissioner's only public hearing on the matter was held Jan. 25.

A city report said the applicant completed a project review meeting Aug. 1, 2023, and completed an initial meeting with staff Oct. 21.

Woodard, a developer with four decades of experience, said the DRC hearing shouldn’t have been held without first meeting with neighbors and stakeholders.

“We value community input and keeping community informed,” Woodard said.

She said the traffic study should have been required before the project was approved, not after. She said developers could have worked with architects so the project would not “obliterate views for residents and visitors.”

“Come back with a design that accomplishes those things,” she said.

Patterson said this is not a public hearing and members of the public can’t testify. No witnesses can be called and no new evidence can be submitted. Comments are limited to “matters related to the adopted design standards and guidelines.”

Woodard will have 10 minutes to tell the City Council “that an error was made by the Design Review Commission in its decision or that it ignored or incorrectly applied the design standards or guidelines, and how you were prejudiced thereby."

City staff will have 10 minutes to give a report and the applicant will have 10 minutes “to address the City Council on matters raised by the appeal."

Woodard will get another five minutes “for rebuttal to address anything that came up during the City’s or the applicant’s presentations.”

The burden of proof is on Woodard, “by a preponderance of the evidence, which means that Council must believe it is more likely than not that an error was made."

Asked if she was hopeful the City Council would agree with her, Woodard said she couldn’t say. 

“I don’t know,” she said, "but I hope so."

    A Marriott hotel is planned for this vacant lot at Sixth and Sherman in downtown Coeur d'Alene.