Coeur Terre 2 Passes City Council 5-1

The Coeur d’Alene Press reports that the City Council approved the Coeur Terre 2 subdivision on Monday, August 31, 2026, after more than five hours of presentations, public comment and deliberation (Coeur Terre 2 passes, Coeur d’Alene Press, September 1, 2026).

• The appeal: neighbor Madelyn Knutson appealed the planning and zoning commission’s July approval, mainly on whether the developer, Kootenai County Land Company, adequately considered traffic. She asked for revised internal road connections and traffic models, safe phasing, and protection of taxpayer liability.
• The vote: 5-1. Council member Christie Wood voted no: “Traffic mitigation is a concern. And I think we need to address it.”
• The findings: the Council found that the commission followed protocol, that the plat requirements are met, and that infrastructure provisions are adequate. The approval carries 32 conditions, and the City plans to discuss making some streets in the project one-way.
• Access: the project began with up to seven access points; after City review the developer reduced them to two.
• Public comment: the sign-up line stretched toward the entrance. Many residents questioned whether the traffic data accounted for things like accessory dwelling units, and some spoke in favor of the project’s 26 affordable single-family homes.

Testimony at the hearing

Brian Rogers, a neighbor of the project, spoke in opposition during public comment. The Press quotes him: “Smoke and mirrors for details that should’ve been taken into account.”

Watch his testimony on the City of Coeur d’Alene’s YouTube channel (it starts at 2:33:31 and runs about four minutes). In it he raised:

• details the builder or the planning commission should have accounted for years ago, many of which neighbors raised in 2022;
• a continued lack of transparency from city planners and KMPO, and fees charged for public records;
• residents being told to hire their own experts to argue with the professionals their taxes already pay for;
• codes that were not written for the scale of housing and road growth now being built;
• project roads close to the signalized Hanley intersection, inside the area the Federal Highway Administration says to keep clear of driveways and side streets;
• CivTech’s July 11, 2022 Seltice Way addendum to the Coeur Terre traffic study, which the neighbors quoted in their 2022 letter to the planning commission. It found the dual-lane roundabout at Seltice Way and Atlas Road “likely to fail prior to 2035” on KMPO’s growth projections, and “projected to start breaking down by 2045, with and without the Coeur Terre site traffic,” even at 2% growth a year. It recommended that the City plan for “three-lanes in each direction along Seltice Way between Northwest Boulevard and Huetter Road” and replace the corridor’s roundabouts with traffic signals.

Correction to the testimony: Mr. Rogers stands corrected on his testimony as well. At the hearing he said CivTech’s 2022 report showed failure on Seltice “by 2045” and a need for “more than four lanes.” The addendum does not call for four lanes on Seltice Way; its only four-lane reference is to I-90 in KMPO’s newer models. For Seltice Way it calls for three westbound through lanes between Atlas Road and Huetter Road and recommends planning for three lanes in each direction. It places the roundabout’s failure before 2035 on KMPO’s projections and by 2045 at 2% growth.

The full meeting recording lists its parts in the description: the City staff report, the applicant’s and appellant’s presentations, public comment (2:25:00 to 3:36:00), the applicant’s rebuttal, questions to City staff on traffic, and the Council’s deliberation and vote.

For the group’s review of the project’s traffic study, see Coeur Terre Phase 2: Traffic Impact Analysis Review.