COEUR d'ALENE - They call it the "Four Corners" project, but over the past 12 years it has been a planning effort that has grown far beyond the original footprint.

The Four Corners area started as an effort to plan for the redevelopment of the intersection where Northwest Boulevard turns into Sherman Avenue, and Government Way becomes West Mullan Avenue.

Memorial Field sits on the northwest corner, City Park and the North Idaho Museum sit on the southwest corner, Coeur d'Alene North sits on the southeast corner and the Kootenai County campus occupies the northeast corner.

Retired Coeur d'Alene Parks Director Doug Eastwood said the city began looking at the intersection in 2002 after the railroad decided to abandon its tracks in the area.

Since then, the project became an effort that eventually would connect the city parks system from McEuen Park to the Riverstone area, and possibly beyond that to the city of Huetter.

Eastwood, who is now consulting with the city on the project, said the old Burlington Northern Railroad property - which is 200 feet wide and stretches about one mile from Independence Point to Riverstone - reverted back to Bureau of Land Management.

BLM now owns about 29 acres in the 45 acres of land controlled by the city and the Lake City Development Corporation.

"The city wants to acquire that property," Eastwood said, explaining that the city tries to maintain an inventory of 4 acres of land per 1,000 residents. "One thing the city can't afford to do is quit acquiring land."

At one point Eastwood said the city, LCDC and the BLM were talking about doing a land swap, but the BLM policy changed last year, and now the agency can only lease the property for public outdoor recreational use.

"Last January, I submitted a lease agreement with BLM for a 25-year lease," he said, adding a master plan must be completed for the property and approved by BLM before a lease can be issued.

If approved, the city would only have to maintain the property, and at any point in that 25-year period the land could be permanently "patented" to the city for the land use it was authorized for.

The master plan must show how the city intends to use the property, so the city's Parks and Recreation Commission was charged with starting that process.

Chairman Scott Cranston said the commission held two meetings a month from June through October. They discussed the project with interested stakeholders in the corridor to gather input on how the area should develop.

"We had about 28 groups attend the meetings and some of them came to more than one meeting," Cranston said. "We invited 40 groups to participate."

That generated a laundry list of specific projects that could become part of the master plan. The Parks Commission is hosting an open house on Monday at 5:30 p.m. in the Community Room of the Coeur d'Alene Public Library to discuss those projects and to make sure they aren't missing anything.

After that meeting, the commission will meet at the end of the month to consider a recommendation to proceed with a master plan for the area. That recommendation will go to the city's General Services Committee in February and that committee would decide to send it to the city council for consideration.

"The public is invited to participate all of the way through that process," he said. "There will be many opportunities for the public to comment. We really want the community to take ownership of this project."

During the meeting on Monday, Eastwood will give a Powerpoint overview of the project and some of the components it will include.

Starting at McEuen Park, the master plan will look at things like the closing of Front Avenue between Second and Third Streets to accommodate a pedestrian corridor that connects Independence Point with McEuen Park.

"It is really critical to get that done," Eastwood said. "We have been talking about doing that since 2010. We knew with the change of use at McEuen Park that we would have a choke point there."

The city council voted to close that section of Front Avenue in January of 2013. City staff approached the Hagadone Corporation (which owns The Press) in August to ask if it would be willing to partner on the project because The Coeur d'Alene Resort's loading docks would be affected.

The city's Planning and Zoning commission approved part of that project in December that related to The Resort's property. The rest of the project is on city owned land, but the Hagadone Corporation has offered to pay for improvements on the city property and to maintain the landscaping at its own expense.

The master plan is also going to look at improving the seawall area in the City Park and also to restore the historic entrance pillars and archways in the park.

"We also want to improve disability access to the water," Eastwood said. "We want to look at installing a transitional dock for people who want to get out of their chairs and into the water."

North of City Park, the master plan will look at alternatives to improve pedestrian safety for people crossing from the park to Memorial Field.

"Since we opened River and Hubbard Streets, the neighborhood folks tell us traffic has been reduced by about 70 percent through there," Eastwood said.

Cranston said if he won the lottery, he would put a wide pedestrian underpass across West Mullan Avenue

"There are a lot of people who cross that street from the park to get to the concession stand at Memorial Field," he said, adding the street is five lanes wide in some places. "We need to do something to narrow that street and slow things down in that area."

Another option would be to close that road and build an access road along the west side of Northwest Boulevard and connect it to the road just north of the skateboard park.

The skateboard park will also be considered in the master plan, Cranston said. They could choose to relocate it to McEuen Park, or leave the one at Four Corners and build a more family-oriented skate park at McEuen.

"They have a new urban plaza type of skate park that looks more like a park," he said. "And there are foundations out there that support those types of skate parks."

Eastwood said he has already submitted a letter of intent to apply for a state transportation grant to build a commuter bicycle trail to run the entire length of the corridor and eventually connect it to the Prairie Trail.

Eastwood and Cranston envision interpretive stops all along the trail and they are talking with Avista and the Coeur d'Alene Tribe about doing a erosion control demonstration project in specific areas along the shore of the Spokane River.

Just north of the U.S. 95 bridge the Union Pacific Railroad owns a sliver of land that Eastwood said the city should consider purchasing as well.

That sliver of land is blocking the city from extending LaCrosse Avenue to provide secondary access to the Bellerive housing development near Riverstone.

Beyond Riverstone, the city has annexed the old Atlas Mill site which is also likely to be considered in the master planning process.

"It's important to note that this isn't going to happen overnight," Eastwood said, adding the master plan needs to be completed soon because there are some stakeholders who are ready to get started with projects in the corridor.

If the city council approves the master plan project, Eastwood said LCDC will likely be asked to pay for a land use consultant to draw up the plans.

They have also identified several public and private funding sources that could be used to help build the project out.