Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows
Mayor Dan Gookin frames growth, local control and urban renewal in State of the City address
Loading...
Summary
Mayor Dan Gookin urged local control over zoning and criticized urban renewal for underwriting luxury housing, outlined goals for downtown character, education and arts, and honored fallen firefighters; audience Q&A covered budget impacts, a possible tourist tax and short-term rental limits.
Mayor Dan Gookin delivered the State of the City address in Coeur d'Alene on the morning of the event, framing the year's work around local control, growth management and public safety. Gookin opened with a light tone about artificial intelligence and said his speech would cover introductions, city data, the state of the city and future goals.
Gookin introduced council members and the city executive team, thanked retiring longtime staff and memorialized two firefighters who died in a June 29 incident: Coeur d'Alene Fire battalion chief John Morrison and Kootenai County Fire and Rescue battalion chief Frank Hartwood, saying memorials and dedications are forthcoming. He noted voters approved a public safety bond in May, reporting it passed with about 75% approval, and said bond funds will buy new fire apparatus and fund an expansion at Station 2.
Putting numbers on the city, the mayor read a set of statistics supplied aloud during his remarks by an automated assistant; the assistant reported a population of about 57,355 (as of July 1, 2024), a total area of about 16.08 square miles (0.51 square miles water), median household income near $70,845, a mean hourly wage around $27.20, roughly 7,000 businesses, a median home value reported near $550,000, about 420 full‑time-equivalent city employees, and a fiscal year budget near $51.9 million. Gookin twice cautioned that the automated outputs could be inaccurate and presented them as approximate figures read during his address rather than city-verified totals.
On housing and development, Gookin sharply criticized how the city’s urban renewal tools have been used. He said urban renewal has subsidized high-end housing at sites such as the Atlas Mill development, producing homes unaffordable to many local workers while using property-tax dollars to underwrite luxury units. "This should be a surprise to no one in the room," Gookin said, calling for urban renewal to be used to attract jobs and higher-paying employers rather than primarily underwriting high-end residential projects.
Gookin framed housing affordability as linked to wages as well as supply, arguing that local government should reduce regulatory friction to lower development costs and that attracting better-paying jobs is a key lever. He also said the city supports measures to preserve downtown character — the downtown core group is considering building-height limits and the city will meet soon about downtown noise — and said he favors adding green space to higher-density projects.
Gookin also discussed plans to pursue transfer of a Bureau of Land Management corridor into the city, a multi‑year process he said could support recreational access and completing an "education corridor" that would include the harbor center property currently leased to the University of Idaho; he said the university has expressed interest in a permanent local presence. He described work by the Coeur d'Alene Arts Commission and announced plans to explore an arts-and-history foundation and an event center to expand performing-arts and sports venues downtown.
During an audience Q&A, the mayor repeatedly faulted the Idaho Legislature for advancing bills he said would limit local zoning authority and short-term-rental oversight, calling such changes an erosion of local control. He cited a past state law identified in the address as House Bill 389 as altering local budgeting rules and said reductions in state surplus funds could lower property-tax relief that helps local taxpayers. Asked about revenue tools, Gookin said he supports exploring a local tourist or bed tax so visitors help pay for services that growth brings.
On short-term rentals, Gookin said some vacation rentals could also serve as month‑to‑month housing and said he would prefer more units be available to residents rather than tourists, while noting recent state-level changes have limited the city's regulatory authority. When asked about partnerships on affordable housing, he said the city supports nonprofit efforts but emphasized reducing permitting delays and engineering costs so projects can proceed more quickly.
The address concluded after about an hour of remarks and a brief audience-question session. The mayor thanked city staff and residents and invited further conversation through the event's question channels; the moderator closed by thanking Mayor Gookin and inviting a round of applause.
What happens next: Gookin said the downtown character report is due next week and memorial planning for the fallen firefighters will be announced in coming weeks.
