Coeur d’Alene will get to decide whether to make history.

The city’s General Services Committee voted 3-0 on Monday to move forward with a historic preservation code and form a Historic Preservation Commission, the first steps in what staff hopes will lead to new grant opportunities.

“This is really the first step to establish the commission,” Hilary Anderson, community planning director for the city of Coeur d’Alene, said before the meeting. “The next step, if passed, would be to become a certified local government, which would allow us to apply for new grant money. It also shows that we support and recognize historical resources that currently exist.”

Once approved, the move would create a mayor-appointed commission of nine history buffs — requiring education or experience from two members in archeology, architectural history, historic landscape architecture, conservation, cultural anthropology, curation, engineering, folklore, history, or historic preservation, among other backgrounds. The other seven members would only need to demonstrate an interest in history. The commission would also include a council liason, as all city commissions do.

“One of the early wins if council supports this is,” Anderson later told the committee, “we would apply for a grant to do a city-wide preservation plan, something the [Idaho State Historic Preservation Office] advises communities to [do] that are new certified local governments. It really looks like the community as a whole identifies our historic resources.”

If passed, Coeur d’Alene would have access to upward of $75,000 in grants from the Boise office, which funds between eight and 15 projects a year. Anderson said the new code and commission would give the city more leverage working with other groups and government entities.

“If, for example, the Idaho Transportation Department is coming in,” Anderson speculated, “and they’re doing major work on a highway. They want to do something that could have an impact on a historic site or historic neighborhood, the city would have more of a say over the project.”

Anderson said any commission that eventually establishes historic sites or historic neighborhoods would not directly raise local property taxes.

“By doing this,” she told the council, “if there are historic districts or a property that’s on a national register of historical places, it’s not going to be increasing their property taxes. There might be someone that’s interested in buying their historic property, and therefore the value might increase, but it’s not a direct nexus. It’s not that, automatically, all these places [will see] increased taxes.”

Anderson said, if passed, the code and commission would establish more of a framework for how it can evolve, adding the commission would have no ability to delay or halt demolition or rennovation decisions, saying its intent is to establish a future say in how future projects are handled, and that its hypothetical direction is not yet clear. Committee member and Councilman Dan Gookin echoed that sentiment.

“A lot of it, you can’t really tell, because you’ve got to get [the commission] up and running,” Gookin said. “If [the commission] is super-aggressive or super-passive, then they can take guidance from us or the community to find out what they want. We don’t know yet. We need to create it first and then find out what’s going on.”

The City Council will vote to approve or deny the code and commission at its Oct. 15 meeting.

“I see wide support for this,” Gookin said. “I really do. I think it’s about time we did it, and I’m excited. I think it’s cool.”