COEUR d'ALENE - Zoning on a roughly 7-acre parcel of land inside the education corridor could be changed to commercial tonight to match adjacent property and allow North Idaho College to one day expand its campus.

The 6.79 acres sit on an approximately 18-acre plot that formerly held a saw mill, near the city's wastewater treatment plant. It's currently zoned for light manufacturing and Commercial-17 Light.

A change to C-17 zoning would allow more uses on the land, such as commercial, residential and civic facilities, which light manufacturing prohibits, according to John Mueller, landscape architect representing NIC.

"It allows the college and university uses to happen," he said. "C-17 really encompasses a lot of different uses, including university and higher education."

If the Coeur d'Alene City Council approves the request, it would conform zoning to adjacent parcels. The preliminary planned unit development for the education corridor has been approved, and calls for C-17 zoning for future development around the campus.

Parcels around the old mill site have been changed to commercial zoning in the last couple of years, with some residents questioning whether C-17 was too broad a zoning for a college area, while the city has said a more inclusive zone is needed to not limit building options as the campus grows in the future.

The proposed zone change is bordered by River Avenue on the south, and Hubbard Street and College Drive traverse the property. New roads were recently completed around the area.

While C-17 typically doesn't have building height regulations, the preliminary PUD caps building heights in various areas of the site. The final PUD should go before the City Council in spring or summer, Mueller said.

The public hearing on the zone change request is at 6 p.m. in the Community Room of the Coeur d'Alene Public Library. It passed the planning commission unanimously in November.