POST FALLS - The Post Falls City Council let the first pitch go by on exploring a Rathdrum Prairie site for a future sports complex.

The council on Tuesday night unanimously voted to table a contract with Gavin Associates of Liberty Lake for a site analysis and feasibility study of 80 acres at the southeast corner of Idaho and Hayden on the Rathdrum Prairie.

The site is part of the land application property the city owns that it eventually plans to use to help discharge treated wastewater.

The council will re-consider the contract on Nov. 1.

Council member Linda Wilhelm said she supports building a sports complex in Post Falls because it's needed, but she has reservations about the site on the prairie.

"The property out there, in my mind, is too convenient to the city to the east (Coeur d'Alene)," Wilhelm said "I'd like it to be beneficial to the economic growth of Post Falls."

Council member Betty Ann Henderson agreed that it would be optimal to have a site more centrally located to Post Falls.

"It would be nice to have something as close as possible to the core of Post Falls," Henderson said. "If it's in closer, more younger people could go there, take their bike and enjoy it."

The contract proposal for the site analysis and feasibility study is for $29,946. The second planning phase, contingent upon the city giving a notice to proceed, would be for a master plan for $59,601.

Both parts of the contract would be paid for with impact fees.

City officials said the complex would have to be built in phases and construction wouldn't likely start for at least three years due to limited funding. Applying treated wastewater at the site may not start for at least another five years, depending on the unsettled Spokane River cleanup plan, but the city could tap into the East Greenacres water system in the interim.

City administrator Eric Keck said the prairie site provides some advantages, including the city owning it and not having to spend impact fee funds for land, which would further delay the project.

However, he said working with neighbors, regardless of the site, will be critical because a large complex will bring noise and lights.

The complex would likely consist of fields for softball, baseball, soccer, football and other activities, but details such as the number of fields and cost would arise in a site plan.

Keck said the site could also be considered for a BMX park, which the city has been exploring.

"We just haven't had the ability to lock down land of this magnitude in our core that's not intrusive upon our residents," Keck said.

Another site the city was exploring for a sports complex - 67 acres west of Highway 41 between Prairie and Hayden avenues - is now off the drawing board.

The city had the option of buying the site from developers Prairie Crossing West and Prairie Crossing West II of Amity, Ore., for $750,000 if a 234-acre annexation request was approved.

However, that option expired in September after an annexation request never came forward due to he recession.

A sports complex site has been in the city's plans for several years after multiple efforts to acquire Quad Park fell through.

* In other business, the council approved a request from Ron Nilson to defer frontage improvements such as pedestrian trails, trees and irrigation for the UnderGround Force manufacturing facility along Seltice Way.

Construction bids for infrastructure came in higher than anticipated, so grant funds will only cover the extension of utilities. The request was to defer frontage improvements until all property owners in the area install them with one associated improvement project.