Hearing set on Roosevelt Inn proposal

A public hearing with Coeur d’Alene’s Design Review Commission on a proposed development for the historic Roosevelt Inn property is scheduled at noon Thursday in the Library Community Room. 

The plan calls for saving the brick building constructed in 1905, the former home of the Roosevelt School. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. 

Walter Burns, chairman of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission, was pleased. 

“I'm delighted,” he said Monday. “By all appearances, the building is going to be saved and the (owners John and Tina) Houghs are going to be able to sell and retire.” 

Blue Fern Management LLC based in Redmond, Wash., is still in the process of buying the property. The deal has not closed, Burns said. 

Their proposal calls for a 38-unit townhome complex at 105 E. Wallace Ave. and 116 E. Garen Ave., a city report said. It would include six buildings with five to eight units each, 74 total parking stalls — 62 in garages and 12 on surface — and preservation of The Roosevelt Inn on a separate future parcel.  

The townhomes will be three-story structures that are 45 feet tall. Four of the townhome structures are designed to front the surrounding streets. Two of the buildings will front internal courtyards, the report said. 

Vehicular access for five of the buildings will be off of the current alley north of the Roosevelt Inn.  

The applicant has submitted applications to the city’s Streets and Engineering Department for the vacation of the alley right-of-way and a short plat to create a new separate parcel for The Roosevelt Inn and create another parcel with the remaining property.  

The total size of the two parcels is 60,500 square feet. The vacated alley would add 6,000 square feet to the total property size.  

Burns said Blue Fern would like to save the Roosevelt Inn and sell it. He said there was a local potential buyer but declined to name the person. 

Hilary Patterson, community planning director, said one condition placed by the city on the proposal is the Roosevelt Inn will be protected through the Idaho State Historic Preservation Office's Historic Preservation Easement Program. 

A preservation easement “is a legally binding agreement to protect a historic property from neglect, demolition and insensitive alterations that may harm the property’s historic character," according to the preservation office.

Patterson said Blue Fern is aware of this condition. 

Patterson said staff worked with Blue Fern to allow what is called a “Floor Area Ration” bonus for upgraded building materials for the existing Roosevelt Inn building with the condition that the historic structure and the grand scale trees and green space to the west of the building be preserved. 

“Additionally, staff is in support of the request for vacation of the alley, the short plat, and the driveways for the townhomes off of Wallace Avenue in to allow the project to move forward and to preserve the important historic resource,” the staff report said.

Benjamin Paulus, CEO of Blue Fern Development, could not be reached for comment Monday. In a previous interview with The Press, he said they hoped to preserve the Roosevelt Inn, but he added the company does not operate historic buildings. 

“That's not us. We’re builders,” Paulus said. 

Longtime owners John and Tina Hough have been trying to sell the inn with plans to retire. Previous deals have fallen through.

Burns said the latest plan to develop the property and preserve the Roosevelt Inn is “worthy of celebration.”

“I couldn't be happier,” he said. 

The Press reported earlier this year that Blue Fern was in the process of buying the Roosevelt Inn with plans to clear the .63-acre property on the corner of First Street and build townhouses. 

As word of the Roosevelt’s possible demolition spread, so did community outcry. About 6,000 people signed an online petition calling for the old Roosevelt School to be saved.  

In June, the City Council passed a resolution that set a 182-day moratorium "on demolition and moving permits and building permits for significant exterior alterations, for buildings, excluding residential, located in the Downtown Core Zoning District, and Downtown Overlay, Northside and Downtown Overlay, Eastside, Districts and buildings listed on National Historic Register.”   

“The Design Review Commission may grant or deny the application, or grant the application with such conditions as are, in its judgment, necessary to ensure conformity to the adopted standards and guidelines,” the staff report said.