SANDPOINT — Parking and two-way streets downtown were just a couple of the topics addressed by community members and business owners during Thursday's open house for the upcoming downtown revitalization project.

About 70 people attended the open house, hosted by city officials and Century West engineering staff, allowing the public an opportunity to voice concerns and approvals regarding the two-way streets and Cedar Street improvements, including site furnishings, landscaping, parking and project scheduling.

"I think it looks really great," said Tervan owner Daniela Caniglia about the planned Cedar Street improvements. "I'm a little bummed because it's my first summer open for business."

Caniglia bought the Tervan in November and is one of several business owners along that strip who will be affected by the construction phase from May to November. During construction, sidewalks and streets will have limited access and possibly dissuade tourists and locals from frequenting businesses along the route.

"I have regulars so it will be OK ... It will still be an awesome summer, but I don't know how it will drive tourism," she said. "But I think it will look really good, we just have to tough through it."

Caniglia said one concern she has is the parking on Cedar near the major intersection at Fifth Avenue. With traffic turning onto Cedar from Fifth after the two-way reversion, people backing out of parking spots, and the street will be more narrow after the sidewalks are widened, she said it could be an issue. She was also somewhat concerned about the amount of trees planned for the street, because business signs could be blocked by the foliage.

This was not the first time those in charge of the design have heard these concerns. In regards to the trees, Christine Fueston, business development and senior project manager with Century West Engineering, said they will have a "more open canopy," or less foliage than, for example, a maple tree. She said they are looking at all of that, plus electrical going to each tree for lights.

The first phase of the project includes the improvements on Cedar between Fifth and Second avenues. Cedar will get wider sidewalks, new street furniture, lighting and storm gardens. Seat walls will keep people from walking into the storm gardens and also serve as gathering places for the public.

"It's like a front room of Sandpoint and we are putting furniture out for people to use," Fueston said.

Joy Batchelor, owner of the UPS store on Cedar, had some concerns about delivery trucks not fitting in the planned parking spots in front of her building. She said the bigger trucks can not turn in and out of the alley behind the store, so they are required to park on the street. Aaron Qualls, city planning and economic development director, spoke with her briefly about different striping options for that area to create at least one spot wide enough for a UPS truck.

"Overall, I like the downtown getting revitalized," Batchelor said. "I like the fact that it's going to get beautified and the widening of the sidewalks for the foot traffic. I think the design is coming along quite nicely."

Also this summer, as part of the first phase of the downtown revitalization project, Fueston said they plan to replace a sewer main along First Avenue. The project will require closing the street completely during the replacement, so detours will be in place. The sewer main runs from south of Lake Street to north of Church Street.

Fueston said business and property owners are responsible for the lateral service lines, so there is discussion whether to replace the lateral lines first and then the sewer main, or vice versa. Either way, sewer construction is scheduled to begin in August and continue through November.

The construction on Cedar will begin after Lost in the '50s, which is May 18-21, and workers will take a break over the Fourth of July. Some of the construction, such as the sewer main, will affect the Festival at Sandpoint traffic in August, but Fueston said the goal is to minimize the impact as much as possible.

"What we are trying to do is schedule around all of the community events as best as we can so everybody can enjoy the Festival with a little bit of inconvenience," Fueston said.

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The reversion to two-way streets is, depending on the weather, only a couple months away and will precede construction along Cedar Street as part of the city's downtown revitalization project.

Fueston said the two-way streets have been a topic of conversation among the community at both open house events over the past month.

"People either like it or they think it's not going to work," Fueston said. "It's kind of a mixed bag."

The Idaho Transportation Department began work on Fifth avenue last summer, reassembling corners of the intersections to allow larger trucks to turn either direction when the two-way is complete. As soon as the weather lets up and ITD finishes the Highway 2/200 corridor project along Fifth Avenue, likely around the end of April, the city will stripe the other downtown streets for two-way traffic — with the exception of Main Street between Third and Fifth avenues and Pine Street between Fifth and Fourth Avenues. Both of these sections will continue to allow one-way eastbound traffic only.

A traffic signal was installed during the summer's construction at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Church Street. This light will replace the one at Fifth and Pine Street, which will be removed this spring. Fueston said the block of Pine Street that will remain one-way, between Fifth and Fourth, will have left turn only in the north lane, and traffic going straight will want to be in the south lane. There will be some on-street parking available in that area as well.

Parking along Church Street will be restriped, with angled parking on the south side of the street and parallel parking on the north side. Fueston said engineers have looked at 30-, 45- and 60-degree angles for the diagonal parking and will be sure to allow room to accommodate the two-way traffic. At the first open house in January, the public was asked for input regarding parking on Church Street, and 86 percent preferred the third option with the angled parking on one side and parallel on the other, which was also the recommendation by engineers.

"We looked at various options and what we hear is everyone wants max parking," Fueston said.

While city staff and engineers are confident the two-way street reversion will be beneficial to the city, they admit it is going to be confusing for drivers.

"I think it will be the first time in our history where the locals drive worse than the tourists," Qualls said. "Except maybe when we went to one-way."

Information: sandpointstreets.com