Last night was the Coeur d’Alene City Council meeting; the second meeting that had a public hearing to hear the views of the public about the CDA2030 Comprehensive Plan, put together by CDA2030 and the City of Coeur d’Alene.
The public hearing was the second go-round for the public to input on the final version of comprehensive plan, the first being last week’s Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, – a whopping 10 days after the final version had come out.
This time there were more people to fill that room, and more CDA Police officers to ensure the city councilmen are “safe.”
Even with more people making points as to why this plan cannot be approved in its current form the outcome was the same: the city council approved the plan even though they acknowledged they should have given the people more time to look over the final draft before approving.
You heard that right.
There was acknowledgement that everything was quick, but Amy Evans continued on anyway to make a motion to approve the plan and Dan English seconded. All but Dan Gookin voted in favor of approval, Kiki Miller was absent, and that was that.
The 4.5 hour city council meeting was done and the councilmen were escorted to their vehicles. City tax dollars at work.
There are a few observations from the evening pulled out below.
Newly elected mayor Jim Hammond was bumbling around so much he was acting like he was only 3 shades away from being of the same mental capacity as Joe Biden.
The consulting firms that were hired to make this plan are from Berkeley, CA with offices in all the major cities across the country. To give it that *local* flare. <<sarcasm>>
The Acknowledgements page of the plan looks like an incestuous game of “Who Knows Who in CDA?”
The city spent over $245,000 on the creation of this plan and yet couldn’t bring themselves to spend money on mailing a letter/postcard to everyone who lived in Coeur d’Alene – during the plandemic – to inform them that this plan was being created and input was wanted.
Dan English let the audience know that they are uninformed if they are not reading the CDA Press, so it’s the audience’s fault for not being involved in the planning.
Hillary Anderson addressed the public and basically said “sorry, better luck next time.”
There was about an 80 opposed/20 approve split of the people.
All those who testified in approval of the plan were either involved in the creation of the plan, worked for a nonprofit that benefits from the plan, or in the development industry that benefits from the plan.
All those who testified against the plan were residents of the area and most had moved away from other cities that had developed their lands like this plan wants to do with Coeur d’Alene. They gave testimony about the experience of living through a plan like this and why they moved away from those areas.
Only a few people, including one ex-sheriff deputy, mentioned the higher crime rate in areas that have high-density housing, like what is included in this plan. All have lived through the crime and all moved here to get away from that crime. All were opposed to this plan.
All night the audience was told that just because it’s in the plan doesn’t mean the council will approve zone changes, put high density housing in areas that permit it, etc. They said that because this is a “living document” it will be easy to pick and choose and mold this plan.
At one point, it was brought up that the fairgrounds was included in this plan. The law states that all lands in the city limits must be accounted for in case they are ever sold back to the city. County owns the fairgrounds so if they were to ever move the fairgrounds they could sell the land back to the city and then that land would be under the comprehensive plan. But not before then. The consultant said that yes, even though it’s under a mixed use high density plan right now, it could have gone under the civic land use instead. THEN he mentions that if it was under a different land usage it would be difficult to change once the plan is approved. This is right after just getting done mentioning that this plan is “a living document” and can be molded to our needs easily in the future. (Sounds like a bit of speaking out of both sides of the mouth but maybe it’s just me.)
The Hoekendorf family, and families like them, are our hope for the future. Homeschooling is the only way to get critically thinking children anymore and it showed last night. There’s always an exception to the rule, but this is really the only way to get smart, well-rounded children.
Don’t be surprised to see David Hoekendorf’s name running for an elected position at some point; that 20-year-old is brighter than most of the adults in that room.
The Hoekendorf family business is Integrity Construction in case anyone needs a contractor. 😉
See the entire live-Telegram thread here.
I don’t really know where to go from here other than this city council believes it can get away with anything – because they’re right. We have not stood up and put the pressure on them CONSISTENTLY and it shows. Examples: Christy Wood recall, Kiki Miller recall, Kiki Miller reelection, Amy Evans reelection, etc. This level of participation NEEDS to happen at EVERY city council meeting and EVERY city commission meeting, otherwise our city is not longer ours and no one will want to live here who cares for this city.