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 pedestrian and bicycle access while preserving neighborhood character and minimizing removal of recently installed sidewalks and trees. Council President Deb Rule urged the group to be pragmatic about timing: the project is budgeted in the current fiscal year but expanded public engagement and redesign could push the bid and construction schedule into the next fiscal cycle.

Key details and council direction

- Lane width: After extended discussion of winter plowing, emergency access and traffic calming, councilors favored 10.5-foot travel lanes as a compromise between the city standard 12-foot lanes and narrower 10-foot options. Councilmember Kyle Shriver and several colleagues cited snowplow blade widths and truck mirrors in their rationale; staff noted narrower lanes can calm traffic but increase maintenance risk at curb edges.

- Sidewalks and bike facilities: The group agreed to preserve or avoid removing recent 5-foot sidewalks where present on the south side. The council favored a 5-foot sidewalk on the north side and a 10-foot shared-use path on the south side (the path would be signed/multiuse as appropriate). Staff noted Idaho law allows bicycling on sidewalks outside the downtown core and that sharrows (shared-lane markings) are already common in town.

- Planter strips and stormwater: Councilors prioritized larger planter strips where there are no overhead powerlines so trees can reach full size and the planter strip can help treat stormwater. Staff reminded the council that the city will need to meet stormwater treatment requirements if the city population exceeds 10,000 and that the planter strip can be adapted with filtration media if the future permit requires it.

- Trees and arborist review: A prominent silver maple near the corridor drew sustained comment. Staff and council agreed to ask for an arborist assessment and a cost estimate to determine whether construction techniques (e.g., lifting the roadway, changing grading, or other mitigation) could reasonably preserve the tree. Staff estimated tree-saving measures could cost “tens of thousands of dollars,” and could be at least $10,000 and potentially far more depending on the constraints of utility work and root zones.

- Utilities and constructability: Staff noted planned water-line upgrades and other utilities will require trenching in the corridor; those subsurface works can conflict with tree root zones and raise the cost and complexity of tree preservation.

- Public engagement and schedule: Staff recommended returning to public engagement with the revised concept (which differs from the earlier outreach), noting that doing so would likely delay final design and bidding. Staff estimated the redesign and additional public outreach would require several months; councilors and staff acknowledged that contractor availability and seasonality influence bid prices and project timing.

Quotes

"The reason is we have a complete streets ordinance..." Holly, a city staff member, said, explaining the design basis for sidewalks and bicycle accommodations.

Mayor Jeremy Graham urged unity after the workshop: "However this shakes out tonight... I hope we can kinda be unified as a body that however our discussion goes tonight, it moves forward."

"When you dig into that study, when they look at areas with snow, their recommendation for collector roads is 11-foot travel lanes," Holly said while discussing national guidance and winter maintenance.

What the council asked staff to do next

- Prepare a revised concept drawing that reflects the 10.5-foot travel lanes, 5-foot north sidewalk, 10-foot south shared-use path, and the proposed planter-strip widths for council review. - Provide an arborist report and a rough cost estimate for tree-preservation options (including road-lift alternatives and root protection measures) for the large silver maple and the grove of aspens noted by adjacent property owners. - Bring the revised design back for additional public engagement and to report schedule/cost implications; staff warned that further public outreach could push the project out of the current fiscal year without budget adjustments.

Ending

Council members described the workshop as productive. Staff said they would return with refined drawings, cost and constructability information and an arborist assessment; councilors indicated they preferred minimizing removal of recently installed sidewalks and being pragmatic about trade-offs between trees, stormwater treatment, facility continuity and fiscal limits.