COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — Coeur d’Alene is known as a bicycle-friendly city. It wants to have a similar reputation when it comes to walking but one city official said first, it needs more sidewalks.
The city has low “walkability rating” according to National Urban Planning Standards, said Monte McCully, Coeur d’Alene trails coordinator.
"I don’t even think we got an honorable mention,” he told the City Council.
He said 30% of the city doesn’t have sidewalks and in older parts of the city on the east side, you won’t find many sidewalks.
That raises concerns for kids walking to schools and pedestrians mixing with vehicles.
“It’s absolutely imperative we do everything we can to improve the safety, especially around the schools,” McCully said.
He recently presented a possible solution to the City Council. It would involve amending city code so it can require sidewalks to be built with new construction.
Municipal Code §§ 12.28.210 through 240 provides for exemptions to sidewalk construction due to hardship, geographical constraints, and distance. If the nearest sidewalk is 450 feet or more from the property being developed or remodeled, the property owner is not required to build a sidewalk.
“That has, over the years, prevented the city from getting a lot of sidewalks in a lot of areas,” McCully said.
He asked the City Council to direct staff to prepare an ordinance making amendments to change the exemption for sidewalk installation requirements within priority pedestrian corridors, including school routes and the Kroc Center.
