Coeur d’Alene visionaries have a plateful.

The city owes $567,000 for property adjacent to the Ramsey Park complex that it wants to transform into two baseball fields, including one designed for American Legion and Minor League Baseball play. If the city finds the money to complete the purchase, it will need another $4 million to build the two fields – and a lot more to transfigure McEuen Field on Lake Coeur d’Alene after the American Legion moves.

Additionally, the City Council is considering a recommendation from the General Obligation Bond Advisory Committee to ask voters for $7 million for public safety needs over the next 10 years, including a joint training facility for the police and fire departments, and $3 million for a downtown library. This, and the city is trying to help relocate the old DeArmond mill, adjacent to North Idaho College, so it can buy the property for future use as an education corridor along the waterfront. And it’s negotiating to acquire Lakes Middle School for a community center in a land swap with the school district.

Whew! That’s a lot of bang for a limited pot of bucks.

Before city officials daydream further, they should prioritize their wants and needs. Voters, who are feeling pinched by increasing property taxes in a red-hot housing market, won’t support all the projects, unless they’re fed to them in small bite sizes. The city should buy the site to expand Ramsey Park now, for example, and worry about expansion later. Also, the city should revisit the decision on locating the library downtown. Without all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed when these matters are placed on the ballot, the city will have a difficult time mustering the two-thirds vote required to pass a possible general obligation bond in February.

When it made its recommendation, the bond advisory committee wisely jettisoned a grandiose library with 54,000 square feet and a $7 million price tag in favor of one that voters should find more palatable. Supporters would have been lucky to win a simple majority for their first plan. Although polls show Coeur d’Alene residents understand the need for a new library, they are nervous about taking on long-term debt and aren’t sure that a downtown location is best for a community moving northward. On the other hand, a spanking new library close to the shores of Lake Coeur d’Alene, coupled with an upgraded McEuen Field, will become a source of community pride.

A good case can be made that the library will be cheaper to build with today’s low interest rates than years from now.

Unquestionably, Coeur d’Alene boosters have made giant strides in preparing for growth, extending infrastructure and transforming the western entrance to the city. It has a good plan for downtown and the waterfront.

Now, the trick is to get residents to buy into their vision.