SANDPOINT — The City Council is set to tackle another monster agenda, headlined by street projects and a memorandum of agreement with Ponderay at its Wednesday meeting. 

The council will focus on two street projects, the third phase of the downtown revitalization project and the second phase of the Division Avenue corridor improvements, following the consent calendar. Erik Bush, project manager for the downtown revitalization, will be presenting city staff’s takeaways from a recent open house and a basis of design for the project.   

“I'll be joined by our design team, Welch Comer,” Bush said on March 25. “We'll be presenting to city council, hey, this is, this is where we're at, what we're requesting... and approval on the basis of design, the 30% design would follow that.”   

The third phase will stretch down First Avenue from Pine Street to Lake Street, picking up where the second phase left off. At the open house, residents answered questions about priorities on uses and designs. 

Bush said residents favored a street design that focused on safety for pedestrians and bicyclists. He added that they overwhelmingly pushed for more street trees downtown. 

“Those are kind of things that we suspected in advance of getting this feedback, but hearing that is indeed what folks value, is really great to hear,” Bush said after the open house. “I also kind of gathered that most folks were pretty excited about where the project was headed."   

Following that item, the city staff are updating the council on the second phase of improvements on Division Avenue. The first phase, which focused on adding a sidewalk on the east side of Division Avenue and the north side of Prine Street, was completed in 2022. 

The next phase will bring similar improvements, like a six-foot sidewalk and ADA-compliant curb ramps, to Division Avenue between Pine Street to Superior Street. Construction is set to begin while school is out, to not disrupt traffic, and be completed by July 2026, according to the staff report. 

Staff from the city of Ponderay will be presenting on its Brownfields project timeline and will be asking for a MOA with Sandpoint. Ponderay’s project seeks to complete environmental remediation at the former Panhandle Smelting and Refining Company or Black Rock. 

Sandpoint’s Public Works Director Holly Ellis writes in the staff report that the MOA would allow workers to access Sandpoint’s water treatment plant, which offers the only reliable vehicle access to the Pend d’Oreille Bay Trail. 

Ponderay’s Planning and Zoning Director KayLeigh Miller said at the city’s March 16 council meeting that once the MOA is approved, construction could start the following week. The MOA in the agenda packet would be in effect from April 7 to Sept. 30. 

“So exciting, after two years' worth of delay, yeah, [I was] thrilled when that came through,” Miller said on March 16. “It's been quite the process to get us some construction, so nobody will be more excited than me when I soon take the first shuttle down there.”  

More information on the agenda items can be found at sandpointidaho.gov/meetings. The City Council will meet at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall on Wednesday, April 1.