Vote sought on street closure
Coeur d’Alene residents should vote on a proposal to close two blocks of Sherman Avenue, several merchants said Tuesday.
“This is as important a decision as the downtown and the people of Coeur d’Alene will ever make,” Tom Robb, owner of the Iron Horse, told other merchants during a quarterly breakfast meeting of the Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association.
“This has to be settled in the light of day, and not in dark alleys. … It’s the people’s street,” he said.
Platted in 1890, Sherman is one of the city’s oldest thoroughfares. It serves as an entrance to a historic brick downtown and gives drivers stunning views of Lake Coeur d’Alene.
But the street’s future is up in the air. Last month, Coeur d’Alene Resort owner Duane Hagadone proposed closing Sherman from Northwest Boulevard to Second Street.
Hagadone wants to build a new hotel tower at the corner of Second and Sherman. Closing two blocks of Sherman is part of his plan, because he doesn’t think guests would cross a busy street to reach restaurants and shopping at the resort. He plans to turn the closed portion of the street into a lavish public garden.
As a large property owner and employer, Hagadone enjoys tremendous clout in the community. That’s why the city needs a transparent process for considering his request, Robb and others say.
The Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association is hiring an urban planner and an economist to review the potential impact of Hagadone’s plans on its 300-plus members. But the public needs to weigh in, too, the merchants said.
“I just feel the downtown belongs to the community,” said Sandra Kay, who owns a women’s clothing store by that name. “They should have a say, a vote.”
Mark Rogers, co-owner of the Leather Works on Sherman, agreed. “It would be a crime not to ask the owners of the property if they want (the street) closed,” he said.
Tourists and locals alike tell him they love the quaintness of downtown – its small shops, its parks and its waterfront access, he said.
“They see a 100-year-old slice of Main Street Americana. That’s what attracts them to Coeur d’Alene,” Rogers said.
But many locals already grumble about downtown congestion and parking, he said. “There’s the perception that you can’t drive there, or park there,” he said. Closing a street could exacerbate that, Rogers said.
Contacted Tuesday afternoon, Coeur d’Alene Mayor Sandi Bloem said no one has approached her about holding an advisory election on the street closure. Such a vote would be unusual, though not unheard of, she said.
In 1996, the city of Coeur d’Alene polled residents about re-starting hydroplane races on the lake, Bloem noted. Citizens voted “no.”
City Council member Ron Edinger said he tends to agree with merchants who favor an advisory vote, in addition to the public meetings and workshops that the city will hold.
“It’s a big change to downtown, and I think people should have some say about it,” he said.
A February bond vote could be the venue, he said. The city will spend $13,000 on an election asking voters to pay for a new library and public safety needs. If the council supports the idea of an advisory vote, the ballot could be amended to include the street closure, Edinger said.
Hagadone has indicated that he wants a decision as soon as possible. But with the city’s first planning workshop scheduled for Dec. 13, Edinger said it could easily be February by the time the City Council makes a decision on the street closure.
In previous interviews, Hagadone has said his project would be a boon for downtown. He’s estimating that the new tower would attract nearly 90,000 guests annually. He envisions the garden would bring tourists from all over the Inland Northwest to Coeur d’Alene.
According to Robb, Hagadone made many of those predictions about the Coeur d’Alene Resort in the mid-1980s. But despite the increase in tourists, downtown remains a challenging place to do business, he said. Many retailers come and go.
If traffic is rerouted from Sherman to Lakeside, as Hagadone proposes, motorists will lose their views of the water, added Dolly Robinson, who runs a property management firm downtown.
“Tourists aren’t going to see the lake when they come down from Northwest Boulevard,” she said. “They might not even see the downtown.”