COEUR d'ALENE - Redesigning McEuen Field is financially feasible, several officials said Friday.

Despite a possible $28 million difference in the high end estimates for the entire upgrade project and the amount the city's urban renewal agency would be comfortable borrowing to help fund large scale projects, officials said putting down the footprint for a redone McEuen Field could be closer than that gap suggests.

That's because the plan's conceptual design team - Team McEuen - is recommending the plan be implemented in phases.

The first phase would be the footprint, or the bulk of the parking and infrastructure, to a tune of between $14.7 million and $17.3 million. Adding temporary baseball relocation costs and a new boat launch at Silver Beach, the total hovers between $17 and $20 million.

But if that groundwork can be met, officials said, the rest of the park could fall into place.

"That would be the biggest portion of the most costly aspects of the park," said Deanna Goodlander, City Councilwoman and liaison to Lake City Development Corp., the city's urban renewal agency. "Once you get the footprint in, the rest of it is very fluid."

The rest is the itemized amenities and perks included in the park design. Those would be funded in the future, by various yet-to-be identified sources.

Officials spoke about the costs of the project Friday after LCDC announced Wednesday that it could have up to $11.7 million to allocate to future projects, including McEuen, should it decide to borrow money.

LCDC has always been looked at as a likely funder for the project, though not the sole financial provider.

That $11.7 million total seemed low to some officials. Especially since it wouldn't be just for McEuen, and compared to the $23 to $39 million estimate Team McEuen tallied last week to build out a majority to all of the park.

"I think they're quite a bit short," said City Council President Ron Edinger. "I was thinking if the project was done LCDC would be able to fund the majority of it."

Now, he said about the plan, "I think there are some things that should be eliminated and maybe scaled down."

That could still happen.

The plan, with its costs, will be center stage at a 6 p.m. open house May 5 in the Community Room of the Coeur d'Alene Public Library. Eventually, a design in some form will go before the City Council to adopt or not.

But Mayor Sandi Bloem said it's important to look at the park as a long-term goal, one that could be built over the course of years, which would make the first phase vital.

"I don't think anybody thought that when we started we'd be able to go down there and build it all in one year," she said. "The important thing is to have a vision in mind as we move forward."

That roughly $17 million phase would put in the park redesign's core.

It would add parking and increase grass space by five acres by removing the boat launch and building a two-level parking garage, utility infrastructure, Front Avenue and Fourth Street improvements, and the Centennial Trail design, the child play area, while implementing features on the northwest end of the park down to the water such as the veteran's memorial, grand plaza and waterfront promenade and sea walls and steps.

(The bottom level of the parking structure is itemized separately between $5.5 million and $6.4 million should that be included.)

"If we can get that far, we've done a lot," said Al Hassell, City Councilman. "We'll have the parking done and Front Avenue finished, then we can go from there based on the money."

After that first phase, the rest of the itemized amenities could be funded by grants and private donors over time, up to 20 years some officials estimated.

Specific grants and donors haven't been established yet.

Two potential departments are the Idaho Parks and Recreation Department and the National Parks Service. Representatives couldn't be reached Friday, but Idaho Parks and Recreation has several grant divisions, and allocated $331,817 to Kootenai County in recreation grants in fiscal year 2010, according to its website.

Also, the city has utility, parking and street maintenance funds that will be allocated to that section of town regardless of what becomes of the McEuen Field project. The finance and engineering department heads were out of the office Friday and those amounts could not be obtained.

McEuen steering committee member Denise Wetzel, representing the Americans With Disabilities Act component of the park, said she has researched around 80 grants that could be awarded to ADA compliant projects, some of which the McEuen Field project includes.

But should the first step be installed but funding for the rest of the perks never materialize, officials were split on whether that would be a successful park overhaul.

"It wouldn't be a total success in my mind," said John Bruning, City Councilman, adding that he had hoped for a bigger possible total from LCDC's borrowing power. "I don't think it is. But I have confidence the people will set up and want to see it finished. We have to get started with something and then the rest of it will take off. I really feel that way. But you have to get started, and that's what LCDC could do."

Critics of the planning process have said that responsible design starts with a budget then builds to that affordability. Designers have maintained they were building a vision, not to be hamstrung by costs when its in the idea stage.

A majority of the city's parks were built that way, first with a concept and then filling in the perks as funding and donors come along, said Doug Eastwood, parks director.

The BMX park, Fallen Heroes Plaza and disc golf course were all funded by donations over time after Cherry Hill park was built in the early 2000s.

Edinger said he's worried that contributions in a down economy might be tapped out, but Eastwood called LCDC's possible contribution "a huge first step."

He said he was optimistic the same method could fill out McEuen Field, despite the gap being in the millions as opposed to hundreds of thousands.

"You wouldn't have the 29-park system you have today," he said about building a park's core and filling it in down the line as opposed to waiting for when every dollar is in the bank. "We would have backed off and hid a long time ago."