Kootenai County's transportation planning agency is looking to hire a consultant to help it select a location for a proposed new transit center in the Coeur d'Alene metropolitan area.

The agency, the Kootenai Metropolitan Transportation Organization, is seeking proposals for the study on behalf of free public transit provider Citylink, which is operated by the Coeur d'Alene Tribe of Indians in partnership with the KMPO, Kootenai County, and the state of Idaho, says Ryan Stewart, a KMPO senior transportation planner.

Citylink operates three urban routes, in Post Falls, Coeur d'Alene, and Hayden, as well as a fourth route that transports passengers between Coeur d'Alene and Worley, Idaho, where the tribe operates its Coeur d'Alene Casino.

Citylink buses currently use a location in the mixed-use Riverstone development in Coeur d'Alene for transfers and as a park-and-ride lot, but must move from there to make room for expansion at that development, Stewart says.

The selected consultant would research potential sites for a multimodal transit center and make recommendations to KMPO based on its analysis. Proposals are due Dec. 1, and KMPO expects to select a consultant in January, Stewart says.

The organization hopes to have completed a study by June 1, he says.

It isn't clear yet how much the study will cost, or how much it would cost to develop a transit center, Stewart says.

KMPO will pay for the study, and later will seek federal funding to help it acquire a site and to build the transit center, he says.

Riverstone has allowed Citylink to use its property as a bus staging area since the transit provider's inception in 2005. The developer, however, has said that space now is needed for parking and additional development at Riverstone, Stewart says. For now, the developer has found an alternate location for Citylink on its property, but Stewart says Riverstone will need that space as well next spring. It likely will be several years before a new transit center would be ready, so another temporary location will be sought in the meantime, Stewart says.

Several private bus companies in Idaho have expressed interest in using a transit center, Stewart says. KMPO also hopes to accommodate paratransit services operated by the nonprofit North Idaho Community Express, as well as Spokane Transit Authority vanpools and shuttles to and from schools and medical facilities in the Kootenai metropolitan area.

He says KMPO wants to develop a facility that would be centrally located and accessible for other modes of transportation, including access to pedestrian and bike paths and the possibility for commuter rail access in the future.

The new transit center would include a park-and-ride lot at a minimum, but the consultant also will be asked to examine the possibility of adding a maintenance building and a place for Citylink to store its buses overnight, says Stewart. Currently, the buses must return to the Coeur d'Alene Tribe's property near Worley each night.