City OKs design of downtown project

SANDPOINT — The city’s downtown revitalization efforts date back as far as 2005, to the inception of the Sandpoint Urban Renewal Agency, and more recently with council’s adoption of the “Downtown Streets Plan and Design Guide” in 2012.

In 2016 and 2017, the city collaborated with consultants, further engaging the community to bring the vision laid out in the downtown streets guide to the next level, said city Public Works Director Amanda Wilson.

“That next level really worked to provide and navigate a balanced approach between vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists, stormwater treatment, landscaping, parking, and businesses’ ability to expand to the outdoors to meet their needs, whether that’s a restaurant that wants to expand into the sidewalk, or whether that’s merchandise that they are trying to sell, or just simply access to their business,” Wilson said.

“The culmination and the results of those efforts can really be seen on Cedar Street … Those efforts carried forward into the design on First Avenue, with the overall effort of providing continuity and, again, the balanced approach of priorities.

During the March 6 meeting, City Council members reviewed the proposed design and budget for the second phase of the downtown revitalization, and voted to approve sending the project out to bid.

The first phase of the downtown revitalization project encompassed three blocks of Cedar, between Second and Fifth avenues. The first phase of the project was completed in the fall, and improvements include sidewalk reconstruction, stormwater piping, storm gardens with seating walls, benches, bike racks, landscaping, trees, lighting and more. The second phase will see similar improvements, continuing from Second and Cedar, around the corner onto First Avenue down to the Church Street intersection.

While Cedar Street will remain consistent with its bulbouts at the intersections, it will vary on First with no bulbouts at the intersection of Main, and reduced bulbouts at the Church Street intersection.

Wilson said when the engineers started running the turning movements at the intersection of Main, they found that bulbouts were not functional, in part because of the angle of Main Street. Options for the bulbouts at Church were provided during the meeting, and council ultimately chose to go with the “Option B” that would allow a turning radius for recreational vehicles and trucks pulling boat trailers, as well as most delivery trucks.

Because the real estate from bulbouts are used to make room for storm gardens, there is less area for stormwater treatment along First than there was on Cedar. By taking out the bulbouts from the Main intersection, they lost approximately 500 feet of real estate, Wilson said. The streets guide called for a variety of stormwater swales on First, and while it has been reduced, Wilson said the approximately 1,000 square-feet of swales slated for the second phase of the project is sufficient for treating the stormwater. There will also be stormwater treatment improvements added in with the future Farmins Landing project, said city engineer Dan Tadic. Along the sidewalk area of First near the Cedar Street Bridge, the design call for what Wilson called a “tree in a box,” for lack of a better term, she said. The stormwater treatment box, Wilson said, will be home to a tree consistent with those approved for the downtown project, and will make up for some of the swales that were removed from the design.

Council president Shannon Williamson suggested that if the bids come in under the projected budget, that the city allocate some of the excess funds to put in more the boxed tree filtration units, to replace some of the trees already incorporated into the design.

“That’s a subject that I deeply care about, and I want to make sure we are a leader in our region on stormwater management,” Williamson said.

An amendment to use possible excess funds, excluding contingency, toward additional stormwater treatment landed in a tie between the four council members present. Mayor Shelby Rognstad broke the tie by voting in favor of the amendment.

Prior to the vote, however, Wilson detailed the funding, actual and estimates, for each phase of the downtown revitalization project. As the first phase was completed last year, the numbers she presented primarily represented actual cost for that phase at a total of $2,694,624. The second phase is estimated at $3,256,000 and the third phase is estimated at $2,283,450.

The primary source of funding for the total project estimate of $8.2 million is the Sandpoint Urban Renewal Agency, which will reimburse the city $7,782,000 over the course of 12 years for the downtown revitalization. The rest of the funds will come from the city and an Idaho Community Development Block Grant of $335,000, which Wilson said is primarily for the lighting and electrical work.

Wilson also detailed some things not included in the downtown revitalization, but that could be incorporated in the future, including strategies, which is the expansion of businesses or public spaces into the parking spaces.

“This is not included in our current project, but we just wanted to note that nothing that we are doing at this time is impacting or prohibiting this possibility,” Wilson said. “There is a variety of businesses that appear to be very interested in this notion, so we just wanted to let everyone know that this is still an option should council, in the future, decide that this is something that we should pursue.”

Another thing that could be incorporated in the future is a “feature” intersection at First and Main, which would include a raised concrete intersection. It could also include art on the concrete, she said, using a thermoplastic paint.

“It’s an opportunity for the community to kind of come together and figure out what they want to put on the center of their intersection,” Wilson said, again emphasizing that it is not included in the current project.

The city’s historic commission is also looking at featuring historic photos of the area on electrical cabinets downtown, such as the large one at Third and Cedar, she said. This would make them a “little bit more attractive,” Wilson said.

Construction on the second phase of the downtown revitalization project will begin after Labor Day and finish for the winter around Thanksgiving, though there will be a few things crews will have to finish up in the spring, Wilson said. Final completion of the second phase is slated for May 2020, before Lost in the ‘50s weekend.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.