SANDPOINT — The Parks and Recreation Commission voted 7-1 to recommend the city move forward with renovating the City Beach RV Park to the City Council on Wednesday.

Commissioners expressed difficulty in coming to a decision due to the fast-moving nature of the process and the lack of other viable alternative plans. Commissioner Tyler Wagner, the lone dissenting vote, said he would have liked more time to develop viable alternatives. 

“I just feel like I'm in a weird spot, like I'm being forced to decide on an RV park, or whatever other ideas we come up with, and we don't have another idea,” Wagner said. I feel like we're being asked to choose between this and the unknown, and I don't know what the unknown is.” 

Ultimately the commission decided to recommend the renovated RV park, with the option to reevaluate as funding opportunities become available, to ensure the city stays in control of the land and the $950,000 grant it has been accepted from the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation. 

Community Planning and Development Director Jason Welker said the RV park brings in around $80,000 in net revenue to the Parks Capital Improvement Fund. In the past, Averill Hospitality officials have publicly offered to pay that amount to the city; however, Welker said as of Jan. 14 no official offer has been made to the city.  

There was a motion made earlier by Commissioner Eric Donenfeld that would have moved forward with plans for renovating the RV Park but allowed Averill Hospitality until February to submit a legally binding proposal. The motion was shot down 6-2 with the commission expressing a desire to keep any revenue stream in the hands of the city, not dependent on a company. 

Commission Chair Taylor Long said he liked the quirky nature of the RV park and worried about being left without the grant if Averill never came to the city with a proposal. Numerous commissioners echoed Long’s concerns about losing the grant, which Welker said would go away if the city was not showing progress on the RV park by May.  

“If we say, ‘Oh, we're going to take the Averill’s money and we're not going to move forward with the RV park,’ and the Averills don't decide to build their hotel. We just lost the grant, and we've got nothing for it,” Long said. “So, I think that's a real concern.” 

Ben McGrann, local representative for Averill Hospitality spoke during public comment time asking the commission to consider recommending an alternative use. He said the money from the Averills could go toward reviving recreation programs like the lifeguard program at City Beach. McGrann did not comment following the commission’s decision. 

The city has planned to renovate the RV park with a $950,000 grant from the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation. Welker said the city takes opportunities as they come, and that the city’s current parks masterplan is infeasible with the city’s current funding. 

The commissioners considered the results of a workshop hosted by the city, at which residents shared their vision for the space, and a survey. The city received 908 responses to the survey and respondents, 43% of whom said they were city residents, ranked the renovated RV park the highest in every category, followed by turning the land into a community event space or a multi-use green space with a playground. 

If the city does take the grant that has been offered to it, Welker said the land must remain an RV park for the next 25 years or the city would risk having to repay the grant. Welker said a grant administrator from the state told him grant funds can only go toward what was included in the grant proposal. 

This eliminates any ability for the city to keep the grant, but move the RV park elsewhere, which was floated by several residents at the December workshop. 

“We cannot locate RV sites outside of the footprint of the existing RV park,” Welker said. “Unless an amenity is primarily used by RV park customers, we can't use RV funds to build it.” 

The recommendation will come before the City Council, where they could make a final decision on the matter, at its Feb. 4 meeting at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.