Public involvement sought for Travers Park playground, downtown design codes

By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff

The city of Sandpoint is offering a number of opportunities for public feedback on a pair of big-ticket items on the 2024 agenda: the inclusive playground and splash pad at Travers Park and revisions to downtown design codes.

A survey is ongoing for the Travers Park concepts, available at surveyhero.com/c/TraversParkInclusivePlayground, which asks respondents to weigh in on the project that will include portions of the existing playground incorporated into the new play area designed along a number of themes: “Sandpoint Stories,” “Splash,” “Rapids” and “Into the Woods.”

The themes refer to local stories and legends; the city’s connections to its lake, streams and creeks; and opportunities for playground users of all abilities to climb and explore on logs and boulders.

The existing swings will be relocated, with the potential for additional elements if the budget allows. The work is being paid for with a 50% local match of $561,000, and 50% from federal sources, for a total of about $1.1 million.

According to a presentation before the City Council on Dec. 20, the results of the survey will be included when staff brings the concept back for consideration of the final design and request for approval at the regular Wednesday, Jan. 3 meeting at City Hall.

Numerous aspects of the design came from input gathered from about 75 students at Washington Elementary, Sandpoint Waldorf School, Farmin-Stidwell Elementary School and Sandpoint Junior Academy, as well as a Nov. 28 community open house.

Looking ahead, the plan calls for development of the construction drawings during the winter of 2024, with construction in the summer of 2024.

City residents gather in November to weigh in on amenities at Travers Park. Photo courtesy of city of Sandpoint.

“We had enough input that we could have done a hundred different parks and a thousand acres of playground,” said Mike Terrell, principal and landscape architect with MT-LA, which is working on the project. “So our goal is to whittle that down and get the most important things in it.”

Meanwhile, also at the Dec. 20 meeting, Sandpoint Arts and Historic Preservation Officer Heather Upton and City Planner Amy Tweeten walked council members through the priorities and process for putting in place the downtown design code changes envisioned by the final report that resulted from the downtown waterfront design competition, which wrapped up in the fall.

The three central issues to be addressed first will be downtown building design guidelines, historic preservation guidelines, and zoning codes in the First Avenue and Cedar Street downtown core.

“All of these projects have synergy and they need to be looked at holistically to ensure that the code that we’re bringing forth — that the community has been a big part of — can be lasting through all of these ebbs and flows that we go through,” Upton said. “Things not limited to but that this will address will be things like building heights, setbacks, scale and materials, and then protection.”

Tweeten said that one of the upshots of the design competition came with the recognition that there are “different character areas of downtown and how do we create codes that are overlays and represent the different character on First and Cedar versus the Granary area or even Pine Street.”

Those new codes will establish the exact boundaries of overlays that will direct development, including offering protections for identified historic properties.

“The design report was the starting point and now we really need to get more community input into these areas,” Tweeten said.

Several rounds of public engagement will take place in January, February and March — the first being a survey launched the week of Monday, Jan. 8, followed by a public workshop on Tuesday, Jan. 23 and a joint workshop with City Council and the Planning and Zoning and Arts, Culture and Historic Preservation commissions on Wednesday, Jan. 24.

A second survey will launch on Monday, Feb. 12, with follow-up workshops on Tuesday, Feb. 27 and Wednesday, Feb. 28.

Finally, a third survey will be made available starting Monday, March 11 with workshops on Tuesday, March 26 and Wednesday, March 27 — on the latter date, during the regular City Council meeting, councilors will be asked to consider approving the historic district boundaries and overlay.

After that, the city will produce its historic preservation guidelines, then draft code language and design guidelines, with the code adoption process expected in April.

“[W]e believe moving from the work GGLO already has done and with their support, that while aggressive this would be achievable with their assistance and we’d be happy to be working with them,” Tweeten said, referring to the team that won the design competition in the fall.

Upton said the ultimate goal is to provide developers and the public alike a concrete idea of “exactly what the community is looking for when they come into any type of development.” 

“It’s really a huge gift that we’re giving them,” she added. “The historic preservation guideline book, that’s also a generous gift that we’re providing anybody to help them understand what local historic preservation means.”