COEUR d’ALENE — An Idaho Transportation Department proposal to transfer ownership of Coeur d’Alene Lake Drive to local jurisdictions is back on the table after being placed on the back burner in 2013.

A new version of the plan will be released during a public meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the Coeur d’Alene Public Library’s Community Room, and ITD wants to know how residents feel about it.

ITD first proposed transferring its ownership of Coeur d’Alene Lake Drive in 2011, and sweetened the pot by offering a one-time $3 million incentive payment to help with future maintenance and repairs to the road.

That offer was met with heavy political resistance from some Coeur d’Alene City Council members, who questioned the actual cost of maintaining that 5.5-mile stretch of road.

Some property owners along the road also feared the transfer might result in the city annexing their properties.

After hearing the public’s reaction to the first proposal, ITD went back to the drawing board and hired Welch-Comer Engineers to develop a master plan that details the current condition of the road, needed repairs and ongoing maintenance.

Damon Allen, district engineer for ITD, said that plan is being finalized and will be released Thursday.

“This time around with the master plan, we had all of the interested parties at the table and they all agree on what is in the plan,” Allen said. “That is a big change from the last time we did this.”

ITD wants to unload the road because it no longer functions as part of the state highway system. The road was originally built in 1927 as a section of old U.S. Route 10 and it was maintained as a highway until Interstate 90 replaced it in the early 1990s.

Once I-90 was opened old Highway 10 was renamed Coeur d’Alene Lake Drive and it was maintained as a local dead-end road.

Allen said ITD is still interested in transferring the road to another jurisdiction and even has “a limited amount of funding to provide a one-time payment to a local entity, or entities, to take over jurisdiction of the road.

Gordon Dobler, engineer for the city of Coeur d’Alene, said the city is interested in taking a look at the portion of the road that lies within the current city limits, but nothing has been decided yet.

In fact, Dobler said the final master plan has not been completed, so nobody knows all the details yet.

“The plan will give us an estimated starting point,” Dobler said, noting the plan divided up the road and took a look at the specific issues related to each section of the road. “We are not interested in anything outside of the city limits.”

He said the city limits go from Sherman Avenue to about the Silver Beach Marina.

Dobler said Eastside Highway District would likely take a hard look at the rest of the road beyond the Silver Beach area.

John Pankratz, Eastside Highway District supervisor, said he has been involved in the master planning, but there has been no determination on which direction the highway commissioners are leaning.

“We are working through this, but nothing is final,” he said, adding he has done some initial estimates on the cost to the district, but he will have a better idea of the cost once the details of the master plan are released.

Welch-Comer said in a press release that ITD is considering funding some of the road maintenance and improvement to lessen the financial impact on any entity, or entities, that may eventually take over jurisdiction of the road.

Allen said ITD’s offer is still a little fluid, so he is not sure how much maintenance and improvement money will be needed to incentivize the transfer.

When asked if the $3 million was still on the table, Allen said: “Enough time has gone by since that offer was made, it’s kind of become a new deal since then.”

Allen said the public opinion portion of the study will be the final step to formalizing any sort of agreement between the interested parties.

“After we take public comments, we’ll all sit down and work out the details,” he said, adding there is no formal timeline to get the transfer done.

“It might not happen at all,” he said. “Or it could take a couple of months. It’ll be two or three months at the soonest.”

Allen said the deal is a little more complex because it is likely to involve the city, the highway district, the Idaho Department of Lands and Idaho Parks and Recreation.

Allen said state agencies will continue to maintain the Centennial Trail and the dock permits along that section of road, so they will have to negotiate memorandums of understanding with the jurisdiction that agrees to take the road.

Allen said it has taken five years to get the project to this point, but he thinks it might have been worth it.

“I am feeling a lot better about it from my perspective,” he said.

Those who cannot attend Thursday’s meeting but still want to give input can find the master plan on ITD’s website after the meeting.