POST FALLS — The Post Falls City Council paused a vote for the city’s Transportation Master Plan on Tuesday.

As the city has expanded to just under 50,000 and is projected to potentially reach 100,000, City Councilor Samantha Steigleder expressed a concern over the lack of a north-south thoroughfare and asked if that could be addressed in an update to the living document. 

“How do you get across town, north and south?” Steigleder asked City Engineer Rob Palus. 

Palus said major corridors highlighted in the plan include Pleasant View Road, Maguire, Chase, Spokane, Idaho and Greensferry. 

“We're now at the stage over the past 25 years where we’ve gone from three traffic signals to now we have 20 in our inventory," Palus said. 

Signals and traffic measures at regular intervals are required if access to side streets are still allowed for north-south access, Palus said 

However, as more advanced traffic technology is added to the city’s arsenal, Palus said Post Falls could have the signals talk to each other to cause “green bands” where a driver would hit one red light and then mainly green lights as they continue on a single roadway, similar to Government Way in Coeur d’Alene. 

"I don’t like that,” Steigleder said. “That makes me nervous, then, about this plan.” 

Her ideal scenario was being able to drive down the street and not stop every half-mile.    

City Councilor Joe Malloy spoke of the way east-west travel developed within city limits. 

Malloy used to use 16th Avenue because there was no traffic, and then the city grew. Then he used Poleline, but with more growth the same thing happened. 

“Now it’s Prairie. Ten years from now, there will be stop signs,” Malloy said. “That’s the way it goes with growth, unless we’re willing to invest tens of millions of dollars that allows people to go under it.” 

Ultimately, drivers have to go further out to go up and down as the cost of growth, Malloy said. 

Greensferry Road will eventually become the major north-south roadway for Past Falls, Palus said, adding that the road will eventually be widened to five lanes to ease traffic. 

City Councilor Nathan Ziegler said because so much in the areas Steigleder was pointing out is already built out, there will always be some inconvenience to residents.   

“There are no 100% solutions to any of this, it’s just a matter of tradeoffs, making the most improvements that will serve the most people,” Ziegler said. 

Malloy made a motion to approve the plan, but quickly withdrew it after City Councilor Jack Mosby spoke of his newness to understanding the Transportation Master Plan as a new member of the council. 

Mosby said he wasn’t comfortable voting yet since he wasn’t able to tackle all 700-plus pages of the document in time for the meeting after he received the document Friday.  

A new motion was made and the vote was unanimous to add the item as unfinished business to a future meeting.