PSB to fund parking study

SANDPOINT — Panhan-dle State Bank has once again agreed to pay $25,000 to study the feasibility of building a downtown parking garage, Mayor Ray Miller said Thursday.

The bank had withdrawn the offer in mid-May after city council denied a full occupancy permit for the bank's new $14 million Sandpoint Financial and Technical Center on Third Avenue due to a lack of parking.

After the council vote, Panhandle State Bank said it would get its permit by providing the agreed-upon 110 spaces and pay $700,000 to the city for its inability to provide the required 218 spaces. The $700,000 is the in-lieu-of-parking fee. The city charges the fee to developers who cannot provide adequate parking. The money would eventually be used to create parking elsewhere in the city.

Now that the state right of way between Cedar and Church streets near Fifth Avenue has been made available for parking for the new financial center and the public, PSB will pay for the study, Miller said. The city will hold off collecting the $700,000, he said.

Curt Hecker, chief executive officer with Intermountain Community Bancorp, which operates Panhandle State Bank, could not be reached for comment.