COEUR d'ALENE - Some Kootenai County residents were favorable and others reserved on Tuesday evening, after taking in a public presentation of the county's multi-million dollar facilities master plan.

"I don't know. It seems like a lot of money," said Jennifer Locke, Hayden resident and a precinct committeeman. "I don't think people will agree to vote on it."

The commissioners had previously commissioned NAC Architecture to create the plan, outlining how to meet the county's structural needs over the next 20 years.

Since an initial roll-out for the commissioners, NAC Architecture had retooled the plan to offer four possible options of new structures and expansions.

On Tuesday, principal architect Steve McNutt offered the total sums for the possible combinations: A $28.3 million option, a $34.9 million option, a $36.4 million version and $42.6 million choice.

Commissioner Todd Tondee emphasized that the public meeting was just the first step to introduce the choices.

"This will not be constructed unless it goes to a vote of the people," Tondee said of eventually asking for a bond. "We don't plan on putting this on the ballot tomorrow."

McNutt identified the county's lack of parking and space to grow at administrative and court buildings. Courtrooms and other operations are also scattered inefficiently across the county.

"There are growth pressures, but no room to expand," he said of the courthouse.

McNutt outlined solutions in the four proposed options:

* The $28.3 million proposal: Includes a new justice building on Garden Avenue. The building would add new court space, but wouldn't absorb the Juvenile Justice Center several blocks away, which costs the county roughly $427,000 a year to use.

* The $34.9 million plan: Includes new justice building, with space to absorb the JJC operations. The option would also include an eight-level parking garage with 769 spaces on Northwest Boulevard.

* The $36.4 million option: Includes the new justice building with JJC absorbed. The option would have a six-level parking garage with a south deck on Northwest Boulevard, offering 805 spaces.

* The $42.6 million option: Would relocate all justice facilities next to the jail and county fairgrounds.

All the options would include a $3.3 million expansion and remodeling of the administration building on Government Way, a roughly $1 million Building and Grounds structure and a $187,000 elevator for the current justice building. At least two $750,000 skyways are proposed.

Despite the high numbers discussed, attendance at the public meeting was modest, around 30.

Most were either employed by the county, involved in local politics or had been among the firms that bid to do the master plan.

"There's no gilding the lily. They're real numbers," said Joseph Hower with Trindera Engineering, of how the proposed costs seem legitimate.

Hower, who has been on a walk-through of county facilities, deemed the improvements essential.

"I can attest of the people crammed into every surface," Hower said. "There is no storage space, no meeting space. They are elbow to elbow."

Jack Schroeder, Post Falls resident, criticized building a parking garage downtown.

He would prefer building new county facilities at a less congested area, he said, and selling the downtown structures to offset the cost.

"The parking and traffic scares me," Schroeder said of the garage idea. "It's already congested in downtown Coeur d'Alene. With the traffic coming in and out, is this the right facility?"

Tim Herzog, a Realtor and former Post Falls city councilman, said he would like to see county facilities relocated to the 80-acre fairgrounds.

He supported a proposal he had heard of underground tunnels to transport inmates between the jail and courtrooms, he said.

"Take this property and sell it," Herzog said of the property on the Government Way campus. "Anytime you're talking downtown property, it's high-end commercial property. You could probably do condos on this."