The city of Coeur d’Alene is seeking $3.5 million from its urban renewal agency to reconstruct a 1.5-mile portion of Seltice Way in the west section of the city by 2017, rather than wait for federal funding, says Tony Berns, the agency’s executive director.

A report submitted to the agency Ignite CDA by city engineer Gordon Dobler says that if the city were to wait on federal funding, which likely wouldn’t be available in the next five years, the required local funding match would be about the same as if the project were constructed sooner without federal funding, Berns says.

Berns says Ignite CDA has funding available through tax-increment revenues it derives from increases in taxable value within its urban renewal districts. Most of the project lies within Ignite CDA’s River District.

The city estimates that project would cost $3.5 million and could be constructed next year or in 2017 at the latest if it were to be funded locally.

If the city were to seek federal funding, the requirements attached to federal assistance would raise the project cost to within the range of $5.1 million to $5.5 million, the city estimates.

The project isn’t even on the horizon as far as federal priorities go.

The Kootenai Metropolitan Planning Organization, which is the countywide transportation planning agency, has indicated federal funding won’t be available for the Seltice Way project before 2021, and the project likely only would qualify for a maximum of $2.1 million in federal funding at that time, the report says.

One shortcoming of a locally funded project is that it would only extend to the west border of the River District, eliminating the Seltice Way-Huetter Road intersection from the scope of the project.

Funds for improving that intersection, which is in the jurisdiction of the Post Falls Highway Department, would have to come from other sources, the report says.