By KEITH ERICKSON

Staff Writer

POST FALLS — The final phase of a multi-year development at the Prairie Falls Golf Course in northern Post Falls is underway and will include 49 housing units.

The project, part of a planned unit development approved by the city in 2009, abuts the Union Pacific railroad tracks along Prairie Avenue at Spokane Street.

In recent years, residents living near the UP tracks have voiced concern to the city over the blaring horns as trains rumble through seven crossings in town.

Those concerns prompted city officials to consider hiring an engineer to study the feasibility of creating a “quiet zone” to identify crossing improvements that would negate the need for the deafening horns.

However, during a workshop earlier this week, the council decided not to fund the $67,000 study, Post Falls Mayor Ron Jacobson said Friday.

“Council was of the mindset that if we’re not going to move forward with the necessary improvements, why pay the money for a study?” Jacobson said.

City administrator Shelly Enderud estimated quiet zone improvements would cost around $8 million. The high cost is due to grade separations (bridges or tunnels above or below the tracks) that would be needed to silence the horns.

While Jacobson said he understands the noise concerns, he emphasized the city’s primary responsibility in considering housing projects near railroad tracks is public safety, not inconveniences imposed by train horns.

“There’s been a bunch of homes developed along the tracks,” he said. “From the developer’s perspective, if they want to build next to the railroad tracks and they think they can sell the houses, that’s their decision.”

The mayor said city officials estimate there are 1,400 homes along the UP tracks in the city.

Post Falls planning assistant Amber Blanchette said the final phase of the Prairie Falls Golf Course development will include 35 single-family lots and two residential condominium townhome structures, each with six to eight units.

As long as the developer sticks to the approved planned unit development, “it’s an approved subdivision,” Blanchette said.