Coeur d’Alene apartment development has cooled from its 2021–2022 pace, and the rules that will shape the next wave are being rewritten right now. Permits for units in buildings of five or more fell by roughly half between 2022 and 2024, the city is weighing much lower height limits downtown, and new Idaho laws taking effect in 2026 and early 2027 change what neighborhoods must allow.
For owners of existing buildings, that mix matters more than any single project. A slower pipeline and tighter downtown rules generally favor buildings that are already standing, while state-mandated changes to lot sizes and accessory units add new, smaller competitors at the edges. This guide walks through the plan, the numbers, the projects and the laws, then turns to what they mean for owners.
The plan the city is building toward
The framework for growth is the Coeur d’Alene 2022–2042 Comprehensive Plan, branded Envision Coeur d’Alene. The Planning Commission recommended it on February 8, 2022, and the City Council adopted it on February 15, 2022, by a 4–1 vote. The plan was prepared with consultant MIG at a cost of $245,000, and more than 1,400 people took part in the process.
A comprehensive plan does not zone land by itself. It sets the land-use map and policy goals that the city’s zoning code, annexation decisions and development agreements are measured against. When the Planning Commission and Council weigh a rezoning or a large annexation, consistency with the 2042 plan is a central question. That makes the plan the best guide to where new multifamily housing is likely to be approved: along major corridors, in the downtown core, on redevelopment sites near the Spokane River and in new planned communities on the city’s western edge.
How fast Coeur d’Alene and Kootenai County are growing
Growth is the reason the pipeline exists. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 estimates put Coeur d’Alene’s population at 58,179 on July 1, 2025, up from an April 2020 estimates base of 54,649. That is about 6.5% growth in just over five years.
Kootenai County grew faster. The same Census series shows the county at 191,864 people in mid-2025, up from 171,366 in 2020, a gain of about 12.0%. Put in raw numbers, the county added about 20,500 residents while the city added about 3,500, so most of the growth happened elsewhere in the county, which also includes Post Falls, Hayden and Rathdrum. Those communities compete with Coeur d’Alene for both renters and new construction.
That difference is worth noticing. The city is growing, but the county around it is growing almost twice as fast. For apartment owners in Coeur d’Alene, the most direct competition for new renters is often a newer complex a few miles west along the Interstate 90 corridor, not a project downtown.
What the permit data shows
The Census Bureau’s Building Permits Survey tracks units authorized each year. For Coeur d’Alene, units in buildings of five or more were:
- 2021: 237 units
- 2022: 243 units
- 2023: 150 units
- 2024: 112 units
- 2025: 138 units, in 14 buildings
Across all housing types, the city permitted 582 units in 2021 and 396 in 2025. These annual place-level figures include some Census imputation, so they are best read as a trend rather than an exact count.
Two things stand out. First, multifamily permitting peaked in 2021 and 2022, when low interest rates and strong in-migration made new apartments easy to finance. Second, the 2023–2025 totals, averaging about 133 units a year, are a little over half the earlier pace. Most units permitted in 2021 and 2022 would typically be finished and leasing by now, so the lease-up competition from that wave is largely behind most owners, while the smaller recent cohorts suggest a lighter flow of new supply over the next couple of years.
It also helps to set permits against population. From 2021 through 2025 the city permitted 880 units in buildings of five or more, while its population grew by roughly 3,500 people between 2020 and mid-2025. That works out to about one new multifamily unit for every four new residents, before counting single-family homes, duplexes and townhomes. Because many newcomers buy rather than rent, the ratio is a rough gauge rather than a precise balance, but it suggests new apartments have not far outpaced population growth.
Downtown height limits under review
The biggest pending zoning change is downtown. Under current rules, buildings in the downtown core can reach up to 220 feet with bonuses. On August 25, 2026, the city’s Downtown Core Working Group recommended a sharp reduction, described on the city’s Downtown Core Working Group page. The recommendations include:
- A 110-foot limit for towers in parts of the core.
- A 45-foot cap in the Sherman Avenue historic area between 2nd and 6th streets.
- Eliminating the developer bonuses that allow extra height.
- Wider spacing between towers, increasing from 50 to 80 feet.
- Deeper upper-story stepbacks, increasing from 10 to 20 feet.
These are recommendations, not adopted law. They still go to public hearings before the Planning Commission and City Council, and they could change. Two tall projects are already in progress: the Coeur d’Alene Press reported that the Thomas George is planned at 18 stories and 199 feet and that Sherman Tower is planned at 15 stories and 190 feet, with completion expected in 2027.
Why downtown height matters to apartment owners
Height and bonus rules determine how many units a downtown lot can hold. Lower caps and wider tower spacing reduce the number of large, amenity-heavy rental towers that can be built in the core. That limits future supply at the top of the market. Owners of existing downtown and near-downtown buildings would face less new high-rise competition if the recommendations are adopted, though smaller mid-rise projects under 110 feet would still be possible.
The large projects shaping Coeur d’Alene’s growth
Coeur Terre
The largest single development is Coeur Terre, about 440 acres on the city’s west side, east of Huetter Road and north of Interstate 90. The City Council annexed it on March 21, 2023, by a 4–2 vote. Its development agreement caps the project at 2,800 homes, with about 5% set aside as workforce housing, according to reporting in the Spokesman-Review and Coeur d’Alene Press.
A project of that scale is likely to deliver in phases over many years. For existing owners, Coeur Terre is the clearest long-term source of new competition on the west side, and also a sign that the city is directing much of its growth to the edge rather than into established neighborhoods.
River’s Edge and the Atlas area
Along the Spokane River in the Atlas area, River’s Edge was built as a 384-unit, 12-building complex valued at $42.5 million by developer Lanzce G. Douglass, according to the Spokane Journal of Business. A later proposal would add 296 units and bring the total to 680. The Planning Commission backed the expansion 6–0, but the final status of that expansion should be confirmed with the city before anyone counts it as approved supply.
Atlas Waterfront
Next door, the city bought the former Atlas mill site in 2018 for $7.85 million, using a loan from its wastewater utility. The project has grown from about 47 acres to about 70 acres, with about 3,780 feet of public Spokane River shoreline and about 24.5 acres of public open space. Waterfront redevelopment of this kind tends to lift nearby land values and attract higher-end residential projects, which is part of why the Atlas area has seen so much activity.
Urban renewal districts and public investment
Much of the infrastructure behind these projects has been financed through urban renewal. The city’s agency, ignite cda, uses tax increment financing in defined districts. Its overview of ignite cda’s urban renewal districts lists four:
- The Lake District, created in 1997, which expired on December 31, 2021.
- The River District, created in 2003, covering 307 acres including Riverstone West, set to expire in 2027.
- The Atlas District, created in December 2018, covering 68 acres, set to expire in 2038.
- The Health Corridor district.
The River District’s scheduled 2027 sunset is the one to watch. When a tax increment district closes, the increased property value inside it returns to the general tax rolls of the city, county and other taxing districts. That affects public budgets and can affect levy rates, and it ends the district’s ability to fund new infrastructure that makes nearby development pencil.
Idaho laws that change the local rulebook
Several state laws shape what Coeur d’Alene can and cannot do.
Rent and fee preemption
Idaho Code §55-306, the statewide ban on local rent control, bars local governments from regulating rent on private residential property. House Bill 545, signed on April 1, 2024, and effective July 1, 2024, extended that preemption to rental fees and deposits. Coeur d’Alene cannot adopt rent caps, fee limits or deposit limits on private apartments.
In practice, that leaves application fees, pet fees, deposits and rent increases to the lease and to market competition. Owners still have to follow state landlord-tenant law on items such as notice and deposit handling, but the price side of the lease is not something the city can regulate.
Accessory dwelling units
Senate Bill 1354, signed on March 31, 2026, and effective July 1, 2026, requires cities of 10,000 or more people to allow accessory dwelling units. It raises the minimum size cities must allow to 1,000 square feet or 75% of the primary home and largely rolls back parking requirements for ADUs, according to the Idaho Legislature’s page for SB 1354 and local coverage of how the city is interpreting it.
Starter-home lot sizes
Senate Bill 1352, signed the same day and also effective July 1, 2026, bars cities from requiring minimum lots larger than 1,500 square feet in starter-home subdivisions. Coeur d’Alene’s current minimum is 3,500 square feet, and the city must bring its code into compliance by February 1, 2027. A related bill that would have required cities to allow twin homes in single-family zones, Senate Bill 1353, failed in committee and did not become law.
What these laws mean for rental competition
ADUs and small-lot homes add rental and ownership options that compete with the bottom and middle of the apartment market. A 1,000-square-foot backyard unit can compete on price with a smaller apartment, and small-lot starter homes give some renters a path to ownership. Neither will flood the market quickly, but over several years they can soften demand for older, smaller apartment units.
How to track proposals near your building
Because so much is in motion, owners benefit from watching the public process rather than waiting for a groundbreaking. Large rezonings, annexations and code changes in Coeur d’Alene go through the Planning Commission and then the City Council, and both bodies post agendas and staff reports ahead of their meetings. A few habits make that manageable:
- Check Planning Commission agendas for annexations, rezonings and planned unit developments within a mile or two of your property.
- Follow the Downtown Core Working Group recommendations as they move to hearings, since the final height and bonus rules may differ from the August 2026 draft.
- Note the city’s February 1, 2027 deadline to align its lot-size rules with SB 1352, which will bring a code amendment to public hearing.
- Read development agreements for large projects such as Coeur Terre, which set caps on unit counts and phasing that tell you how quickly supply can arrive.
Impact fees, building costs and affordability
New units in Coeur d’Alene pay development impact fees. The city’s adopted impact fee study, dated January 10, 2024, sets the multifamily fee at $4,953 per unit, made up of:
- Parks: $1,427
- Fire: $1,104
- Police: $575
- Transportation: $1,847
The single-family fee is about $6,431 per home. When the Council approved the fees in January 2024, the Coeur d’Alene Press reported that they include a 3.9% annual escalator, so the amounts charged today are likely higher than the 2024 figures. A 100-unit project would pay roughly $495,000 at the original multifamily rate before any escalation.
Fees like these do not stop projects on their own, but they raise the rent a new building needs to break even. That cost gap is one reason existing buildings can compete on price with new construction.
Affordability pressure behind the pipeline
The demand side explains why the city keeps approving new housing. The city’s 2023–2027 HUD Consolidated Plan, using federal CHAS data from 2013–2017, counted 3,295 renter households in Coeur d’Alene paying more than 30% of income for housing, including 1,610 paying more than 50%. The plan also cites a 2,353-unit housing deficit in Kootenai County.
The same plan, citing a 2021 Kootenai County housing study, put the average market rent in the county at $1,402 in October 2021 and estimated that about 44% of county households could not afford that rent. These figures are several years old, but they describe a lasting gap between local wages and housing costs. That gap supports occupancy at moderate rents and puts pressure on officials to keep adding supply.
What Coeur d’Alene apartment development means for existing owners
Pulling the threads together, owners of existing Coeur d’Alene buildings can draw a few practical conclusions:
- New large-scale supply is slowing. Multifamily permits in 2023–2025 ran at roughly half the 2021–2022 pace, which eases lease-up competition over the next few years.
- Downtown may become harder to build in. If the Downtown Core Working Group’s recommendations are adopted, fewer large towers will be possible, protecting existing downtown and near-downtown rentals from top-of-market competition.
- West-side growth is the long-term competitor. Coeur Terre and the I-90 corridor will keep adding homes for years, so buildings that compete mainly on price and newness should expect steady pressure there.
- Small-scale competition is coming. State ADU and starter-home laws will add backyard units and small-lot homes, mostly affecting older one- and two-bedroom apartments.
- Watch the River District’s 2027 sunset. Its end will shift property value back onto general tax rolls and change how public infrastructure near the river is funded.
- Replacement cost supports existing values. Impact fees near $5,000 per unit before escalation, plus construction costs, keep new rents high, giving well-run older buildings room to compete on price.
Owners weighing what these shifts mean for their own property can test value scenarios with the apartment building value calculator. For local context and how we approach properties in the city, see our Coeur d’Alene market page, and compare other cities on the Idaho markets overview.
