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Tuesday, October 24, 2006 - A week of intensive planning by Post Falls citizens, local officials and the PlaceMakers consulting team began in earnest today with a tour of town, discussions with developers, and a spirited opening-night public presentation.
The workshop, called a charrette (click here for an explanation), will continue throughout the week at the Red Lion Templin's Hotel. Its goal: To establish a sensible template for Post Falls' future growth. To accomplish this, the planning team, who've set up a design studio at the hotel, will be participating in stakeholder meetings and welcoming public input throughout the week, concluding with a public presentation of the week's work Monday afternoon at 5 p.m. (For the complete schedule, click here.)
Tuesday's kick-off included a quick tour of the area to supplement research the team has already done with maps and studies of the region's projected growth. PlaceMakers principal Nathan Norris met with some 18 local developers Tuesday afternoon to hear their goals and concerns. Some of the key questions from the developers:
- How can we balance the demand for quality housing and still keep homes within reach of young families with limited incomes?
- What's the right mix of housing - multifamily for-sale, rentals, single-family homes - that will satisfy both market demand and community design goals?
- Will density sell?
- Are we ready to talk about a real town center? And what would that look like?
- How do we protect what attracts so many people to the region - the river, access to the prairie and the mountains, etc. - and still have healthy growth?
Some of these same questions came up later during the charrette's first public meeting, attended by some 70 citizens. PlaceMakers consultant Jennifer Hurley led the group in a table exercise designed to demonstrate the problem of finding space for the 9,000 households Post Falls expects to add over the next 15 years. Spread out on eight tables, citizens were asked to place small squares representing different housing densities on Post Falls maps. First, they were asked to place the squares in patterns encouraged by current codes and regulations. Then, they were asked to select settlement patterns that reflected ways they would want Post Falls to grow.
At the conclusion of the exercise, Jennifer asked the group how many found that current patterns matched their hoped-for goals for growth. All of the tables said there were major gaps between current reality and future hopes.
Bridging that gap is the core mission of the week's charrette.
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 Take the Visual Preference Survey.
Come along on the planners' field trip.
Sit in on the opening presentation.
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Planning
