Sandpoint councilors settle on 10½-foot lanes, split sidewalk and multiuse path for Cedar Street

Sandpoint city officials spent a workshop session debating the Cedar Street reconstruction’s trade-offs — lane width, sidewalk size, planter strips, stormwater treatment and whether the project can avoid removing established trees — and coalesced around a preferred cross-section that narrows travel lanes and moves a multiuse path to the south side of the street.

The council’s discussion focused on fitting a modern “complete streets” cross-section into a 50-foot right of way, balancing pedestrian, bicycle and stormwater needs against existing sidewalk, street trees and utility work. Holly, a city staff member presenting the design, said the proposal was grounded in the city’s adopted multimodal standards: "The reason is we have a complete streets ordinance..." and the Urban Area Transportation Plan defines typical collector sections, she said.

Council members reached a working consensus to use 10.5-foot travel lanes, keep a continuous 5-foot sidewalk on the north side where sidewalk largely already exists, and place a 10-foot shared-use (multimodal) path on the south side where it would create a continuous route toward downtown. The group also signaled support for wider planter strips where feasible (roughly 6.5–7 feet on the north, about 7 feet on the south) to improve stormwater treatment and allow larger street trees.

Why it matters

Cedar Street is a collector that connects neighborhoods, the library and parks. The council framed the project as an opportunity to improve…