COEUR d'ALENE - Work on Mullan Avenue will be placed at the top of the list in master planning efforts to improve Coeur d'Alene's Four Corners region.

The road is one of the major arteries into the Four Corners, which runs from Independence Point to the Bureau of Land Management corridor's western boundary near the east end of Riverstone. City Administrator Jim Hammond told The Press on Friday that there are two reasons the Mullan Avenue portion of the process was moving more quickly than expected.

"Public safety was probably my priority," Hammond said. "I've been up and down that street enough in the summer and you see people running back and forth with cars passing in between pedestrians - it's just not safe."

The second reason the city is moving forward with designs for Mullan Avenue, Hammond said, is the Coeur d'Alene Carousel Foundation. The foundation, which was created in 2010 and hopes to install a carousel near Memorial Field, has found a donor willing to give the foundation $500,000 if it can generate $250,000 in community donations.

"We needed a design so they could have some kind of a placeholder because it's pretty tough to go out and raise money unless you know for certain where that carousel is going," Hammond said.

As for the design itself, Hammond said city officials and the design team has heard concerns from residents about cutting into City Park and removing trees to realign the road. When creating initial designs for city council approval, Hammond said the design team will likely try to stay within the current framework of the street, while still providing room for the carousel.

"If there's some way that we can, not necessarily realign but, reduce the lanes and narrow it down so that it is more safe for pedestrians, that would be a good thing," he added.

The preliminary city budget has allocated $1 million in discretionary funds for the Mullan Ave. project. Hammond said if the council chooses to close Mullan Ave. or selects a less costly endeavor, the funds can be used elsewhere.

"But they are budgeted that way so that we know if we can get a design that's acceptable with the community, we've got the funds to go ahead and move forward next year," he added.

Coeur d'Alene's urban renewal agency - ignite cda, formerly known as Lake City Development Corp., or LCDC - has dedicated $1.6 million of its budget for the upcoming fiscal year to the Four Corners Project. Executive Director Tony Berns told The Press on Friday that the allocated funds were based on a need to budget now.

"We don't know what the council will decide on the Four Corners Project," Berns said. "So I met with the development team and city staff and said 'If you're going to do something this year that the council will more than likely approve, what would you do?' They said the current thing is the Mullan realignment."

From there, Berns said he worked with the planning team to build a dollar figure based around financial estimates for the Mullan Avenue project. But he acknowledged that the project itself could change, and said the agency isn't tied to the exact dollar amount or using funds for a specific element of the project.

"It's fluid now," he added. "We aren't sure what's going to come out here in the next couple of months. But at least now we will have some resources in hand and budgeted for, should everybody agree these project elements need to be built."