City Center Housing

A long-term strategy to support the city center would be to expand the number of housing units within or adjacent to it. Recent additions to the downtown include the Leisure Village townhouses (located on 7th Street) and the Payette Plaza senior citizen complex on 9th Street and 1st Avenue North.

Building additional residential housing in the city center means that people remain downtown at all hours creating new customers for restaurants and other attractions. The residents become a built-in commercial market and provide new life as well as security to the city center. Downtown housing for the elderly is also recommended since living downtown is often convenient, providing easy access to shopping, entertainment, and governmental centers.

A number of housing opportunities exist for adaptive use of second-level space in many of the buildings in the downtown. These spaces would make excellent studio apartments, often occupied by the merchant living above the store.

Continued emphasis should also be given to encouraging new housing in and adjacent to the downtown. See page 16.

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