Revitalization plan garners lots of input
SANDPOINT — While city and engineering officials are still sorting through the community feedback on the downtown revitalization project, last Thursday's open house was successful as about 100 people showed up and 70 filled out surveys.
"It went really well," said Christine Fueston, business development and senior project manager with Century West. "It was a lot of information for a lot of people to absorb. Some folks don't realize that this revitalization has been going on since 2000."
The downtown revitalization project was initiated 17 years ago to engage the community in discussions about the future of its downtown. The project will be designed in multiple phases, which Fueston said will take place over the next three years, or possibly longer depending on public input and whether the community would like to see smaller phases. Century West is designing the first phase, which is scheduled to begin in the spring — possibly the end of April depending on the weather. The first phase will include the section of Cedar Street between Fifth and Second avenues.
Fueston said some of the feedback received was dependent upon the who the person was and their role in the community. Store owners were concerned about parking and loading zones, for example. Parking spots will look a bit different in downtown after the two-way street reversion plan goes into effect in the spring, and Fueston said a few people did not like the diagonal parking concept for that area. She said the good thing is, striping for parking spots is easy to change, so if they need to change the angle of parking spaces later, that is an option.
"It's the hardscape like the curbing and the storm gardens — some people call them rain gardens — that hardscape is a lot harder and more expensive to change," she said.
At the open house, an exhibit was set up with several design concepts, including a project area context map outlining the first phase project area. Another featured Farmin's Landing along Sand Creek with some actual photos and some concept photos that included an amphitheater concept, an iconic art concept and a stepped promenade concept.
Other images presented at the open house included photos of existing conditions, site material and furnishings in the project area with some possible site furnishing themes for the public to look at and comment. Site furnishings include things like benches, waste bins and bicycle racks. The traditional theme example displays a refined version of the existing theme in a forest green color; the natural theme would emphasized the natural setting of sandpoint in wood, stone and black metal material; and the arisan theme includes whimsical colors and forms that work together to affirm Sandpoint as a creative community.
Among those who attended the open house, no "real consensus" was apparent on any particular theme, Fueston said.
"We had people vote for them and some liked a piece of this and a piece of that," Fueston said.
For example, some might like a bench from one theme because it looked like it would "wear longer," Fueston said, and some would like to see some art but were not particular to some of the examples.
A website will soon be available for the public to see all the exhibits presented at the open house, where they are with the project, the schedule, the project history and more.