POST FALLS — When it comes to Post Falls urban renewal projects, this is the calm before the next infrastructure endeavor.

Since the Greensferry Road overpass was completed a year ago, and subsequently the Spencer Street extension and Highway 41 pedestrian trail, it has been relatively quiet on the urban renewal front that primes the pump for economic development.

But, with time running out for more projects in the City Center Urban Renewal District due to it expiring in 2018, the urban renewal agency sees a few possibilities for future districts in Post Falls.

Jerry Baltzell, urban renewal board chairman, told city council members during a joint meeting between the boards on Tuesday night that the area of Pleasantview Road on the city's northwest side will naturally attract light industrial and manufacturing businesses.

"That would require annexation first," Baltzell said. "Our consensus as a group is that we would do everything we could to infrastructure in out there so that property could be developed to create light industrial or manufacturing jobs."

Baltzell said the area's proximity to the railroad and Interstate 90 make it a natural urban renewal fit.

"We'd have to start from scratch with water and sewer," he said, referring to the type of infrastructure that would be needed first.

Urban renewal districts created by the city and administered by the urban renewal agency have a base tax rate when the district is created. That base tax rate continues to be collected by the county and remitted to taxing entities over the life of the district. As a district is improved, has new construction and increases in value due to improvements, the incremental tax created by those improvements in excess of the base tax is allocated to the URA to pay for the public improvements that have been made within the district. In most cases, the tax increment received by the agency is used to reimburse proponents who have completed and paid for the improvements and dedicated them to the city prior to reimbursement.

Baltzell said other future urban renewal district possibilities include the Idaho Veneer site and the east side of Fourth Avenue and along East Seltice Way between Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene.

Mayor Ron Jacobson said the idea of extending Post Falls' boundaries to the east along Seltice partnering with Coeur d'Alene on future projects in that corridor have been discussed, especially since Coeur d'Alene has started making improvements on its end.

"The potential out there is huge," Baltzell said. "There's a number of businesses in that corridor that would like to grow and there may be candidates out there who later move to Pleasant View."

Jacobson said the city would like to see the urban renewal agency approve small districts with a relatively short lifespan in the future.

There are five open urban renewal districts in Post Falls. Post Falls was the first agency in this state to close out a district and have closed two of them, including Riverbend and West Seltice.

Meanwhile, a pending city center land swap involving the city, Eagles, county and urban renewal is advancing.

The swap would help satisfy the city's goal to create a vibrant business climate along Spokane Street and the county's desire for boat and RV parking for inspections.

The city has made an offer to the Eagles for its vacant site across from its lodge on Railroad and expects to hear whether it will be accepted in about three weeks.

The city is interested in securing the county's vacant lot that's six-tenths of an acre along Spokane at Railroad Avenue for a future business to be determined.

The city does not want the site along Spokane to be used as a future parking lot. The site is directly west of the county's DMV and Veterans Services building and across Railroad Avenue from the Handy Mart.

The county, meanwhile, is interested in acquiring the 1.04-acre vacant property owned by the Post Falls Eagles directly east of the former Oddfellows Hall the county is buying for its future DMV-Post Falls office. The county and city would likely make a swap without exchanging funds.

The sites are in the City Center Urban Renewal District that the city supports.