Sandpoint council approves UATP
SANDPOINT — The Sandpoint City Council approved the final draft of the Urban Area Transportation Plan at their April 17 meeting.
This plan identifies and prioritizes transportation related projects in the greater Sandpoint area, qualifying them for a specific type of state funding, Mayor Jeremy Grimm said. The plan was prepared for Kootenai, Ponderay, Sandpoint, Dover, Bonner County and the Local Highway Technical Assistance Council.
This report was prepared by Aecom, an engineering firm, at the direction of the Local Highway Technical Assistance Council. LHTAC helps the state distribute funding to local governments for transportation related projects, officials said on an agenda request form. The cost to complete the report was primarily paid for by the state of Idaho, with a remaining 10% being paid for by jurisdictions other than Sandpoint. Instead of providing direct financial support, Sandpoint’s contribution was staff time to help administer the contract and assist with public outreach efforts.
In accordance with the plan, the different jurisdictions hold a meeting before each funding cycle and agree on a single project to submit for funding as an urban area.
The three Sandpoint projects were selected early on in the process by city staff and taken directly from the Multimodal Transportation Master Plan, which was adopted by council in 2021.
Projects in Sandpoint include a Great Northern Road project, Baldy Mountain Road extension, and a Division Avenue project among others. The plan also included a long-discussed East-West connection couplet project that was contested by Kyle Schrieber prior to his term as a councilor. While he voiced opposition to the project at council meetings prior to being elected, he was able to include a suggestion to remove the project from the UATP when they took a vote to approve the plan.
“I was on that side of the dias last summer asking council and staff to remove the couplet, and I see that it still is in Appendix A, third from the last line,” Schreiber said. “Is it possible to remove that? The Multimodal [Plan] we can amend ourselves whereas this is a document with several jurisdictions. As the mayor pointed out we haven’t updated this in 17 years and I don’t want that project to live on for another 17 years.”
According to the plan, that project would include multiple changes to traffic control, alignment, and configuration of intersections and U.S. 2 in downtown Sandpoint. New signalized intersections on Sandpoint streets, based upon LOS/actual growth, would also be added.
City engineer Brandon Staglund said that having a project in the plan does not obligate the city to complete the project.
“We can modify the design of these or do something totally different as long as it's the same project,” Staglund said.
A final suggestion was made by Schreiber to consider adding passenger rail to the plan.
“I have been in communication with the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority and they have won funding for a new long-distance rail line that will come through Sandpoint hopefully twice a day within the next eight to 10 years,” Schreiber said. “I noticed there is a section about rail in this document. If it is another 17 years before we revisit this document it would be great if it made plans for passenger rail to be a reality here.
Staglund said that would be a great suggestion for the next update of the multimodal plan.
The plan was approved with the suggestion to strike the couplet project, with Councilor Justin Dick dissenting.