Sandpoint staff outline options for Northern District after rail grant losses; city negotiates purchase of Union Pacific right-of-way for possible rail-trail

At the Feb. 11, 2025 meeting of the Sandpoint Arts, Culture & Historic Preservation Commission, acting staff liaison Jason Welker reported that the city did not receive two railway crossing elimination grants the city had sought, and described ongoing discussions about using local funds to advance the Great Northern Realignment Project in smaller phases.

Welker said the Sandpoint Urban Renewal Agency (SURA) downtown general account has a balance of $1,446,000, and the revenue allocation fund balance is $95,295. He reported a balance of $4,889,000 in the Northern SURA fund and said the mayor and council were “reconsidering what our priorities will be in the Northern District” given the missed grant awards.

Without the grants, Welker said, “the proposed $29,000,000 realignment of Great Northern is not really feasible,” and staff are focusing on smaller, phased projects such as a shared-use path. He gave December and January increment receipts for the SURA districts and reported arts and parks fund balances and recent expenditures: the Silver Box project has advanced $18,315 and had a remaining balance of $1,684 as of Jan. 30.

Welker described a separate but related opportunity: Union Pacific Railroad offered the city a right of first refusal on a roughly 50-foot-wide, partly overgrown rail corridor north of Lark Street that curves up toward North Boyer. The city commissioned an appraisal that returned a market value of $740,000. Welker said the mayor initially offered about $519,000 and Union Pacific countered near $659,000 in negotiations presented at a public council meeting.

Because roughly half of that right-of-way falls inside the urban renewal revenue allocation area, Welker said the mayor has proposed funding roughly half the acquisition from urban renewal dollars and the other half from parks development impact fees, the latter restricted by ordinance to parks acquisition and improvements that serve residential growth. Purchasing the corridor would be an initial step; Welker described a concept of converting the corridor into a linear rail-trail with placemaking and a pocket park near Milltown Apartments that could serve nearby subdivisions and provide multimodal connectivity to North Boyer.

Commissioners asked to be kept informed as council and urban renewal finalize priorities for the Northern District. Welker said public works, planning and the mayor will meet in coming months to refine smaller projects that fit within the current Northern SURA balance.