Here’s Pocatello’s plan to bring sidewalks, sewer lines and more to southernmost neighborhoods

A car whizzes down South 5th Avenue. | Logan Ramsey, EastIdahoNews.com POCATELLO – One of Pocatello’s most underdeveloped corridors could see a long-term influx of funding, bringing needed infrastructure to the area. On Oct. 2, Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad and Chair of the Bannock County Board of Commissioners, Jeff Hough, called into order a joint work session on a proposed urban renewal of the South Fifth Avenue Corridor. The plan would take the district from an area with limited infrastructure to one with expanded recreation opportunities, connected water utilities and complete streets. During the meeting, Brent McLane, director of the Pocatello Development Authority, talked about how developers have approached him with an interest in developing in the corridor. “But then they walk away from it because of the costs,” McLane said. “We don’t want that to happen. We want them to develop in our community, invest in our community, and so this (urban renewal project) is one of the only tools we have in the state to help.” In order for the plan to be approved, the city council must first have a public hearing and consider comments made by the public. This public hearing is scheduled for Nov. 20, after which the council will vote on whether or not to approve it. Presently, the area has limited infrastructure, with the road lacking even a sidewalk south of Samuel Street. Additionally, a pedestrian only has two opportunities to cross the road south of the interstate exit, one being a crosswalk by Jason Avenue and the other being the intersection of South Fifth Avenue and South Valley Road. This is despite there being multiple residential neighborhoods, government buildings and commercial space all currently operating in the corridor. Gravel in place of where a sidewalk could be leading up to Constitution Park. | Logan Ramsey, EastIdahoNews.com Vegetation covering up part of a sidewalk on Cliffs Avenue, just off South 5th Avenue. | Logan Ramsey, EastIdahoNews.com And while the vast majority of people travel through the area by car, people still use the shoulders of South Fifth Avenue for walking or jogging. In the morning on Oct. 7, Onyedika Anih, who recently moved to the corridor, was out for his first jog along South Fifth Avenue. “I would say most of the time I (haven’t) felt like I was at harm or anything, because the cars mostly move to the left when they see someone on the road,” Anih said. While he didn’t feel like he was actively in danger on his jog, he did agree that he was in close proximity to the vehicles, and that accidents could happen. While Anih doesn’t think about it much, he did think he would feel more comfortable going out to jog if he had a sidewalk to use. Onyedika Anih jogging north on South Fifth Avenue. | Logan Ramsey, EastIdahoNews.com The area lacks more than just sidewalks and crossing points. According to the planning document for the “South 5th Avenue Urban Renewal Project,” new development in the corridor is impeded by “the need for extensions, improvements and upgrades to water and wastewater facilities.” McLane told EastIdahoNews.com that presently, opportunities for development are limited, with self-storage units being one of the few options. “You could throw a bunch of storage units out there, but that doesn’t help the city, really. It doesn’t create tax value. It doesn’t create services. It ends up being an economic hole, and it’s not a benefit to the community,” McLane said. He explained that because developers take on the initial cost of adding or upgrading infrastructure in a project area, and are less likely to build in a location that requires more of that investment. A planned zoning map of the project area. Red is commercial, yellow is residential, blue is industrial, purple is mixed use and green is open space. | City of Pocatello “If we could get those infrastructure improvements, then you could have a large shopping complex … or business parks or things like that that might be beneficial to the community,” McLane said. In order to generate the funds for these improvements, the project would put a tax increment financing (TIF) district in place. These districts freeze the base tax value at what is currently collected in the project area, which continues to be directed towards government agencies it regularly goes to. It then collects added tax revenue, called an “increment,” and directs those funds towards scheduled projects in the district. People who live within the proposed taxing district were given the option to opt out of it, and a number of them did. In the meeting, McLane explained that the majority of people who opted out of the district didn’t plan to sell or develop their properties, or have conservation easements. Because of this, McLane said, “It’s not very detrimental to the district at all,” but added, “There’s a couple of them that I wish reconsidered.” Brent McLane (left) and Mayor Brian Blad (right) have a discussion before the start of the joint work session. | Logan Ramsey, EastIdahoNews.com Blad said that people often misunderstand a TIF district, and think it raises their property taxes. “The reality is, TIF doesn’t increase any taxes. They’re going to continue to pay the same amount. They just are not participating in the upgrades of the system,” Blad said. McLane further clarified for EastIdahoNews.com that, “the TIF itself doesn’t increase taxes. What increases taxes as as people invest into their property, and their property becomes worth more than their taxes will increase.” To illustrate the point, McLane said that someone who owns a vacant piece of property would pay the same amount of taxes as normal, whether or not they were in the TIF district. “But let’s say they developed that property and the value increases, because now it has a building on it. So that increase in valuation would generate a tax increment if it was within the TIF district, but if it was not, that increment doesn’t go into the TIF district,” McLane said. In the meeting, McLane explained that it can take awhile before a TIF district generates any significant increment, “but the whole purpose of an urban renewal district is to develop an area that without that district, wouldn’t see that type of growth.” The plan includes three phases, which would be completed over the course of the next 20 years if the district is approved. An estimated table showing how the increment would increase overtime. | City of Pocatello An estimated timeline for when the phases would be completed. | City of Pocatello In May, EastIdahoNews.com discovered that the city had two federal grants, together worth $17.4 million, cancelled by their awarding agencies. These funds were going to go towards infrastructure improvements in the South Fifth Corridor. We reached out to a representative of the Environmental Protection Agency, one of the awarding agencies, who responded that the agency had terminated the grant because it “determined that the application no longer supports Administration priorities.” RELATED | Federal community and forestry grants for city of Pocatello have been canceled. Officials are disputing it The grant funding that was canceled would have covered more than the total cost of Phase One and Phase Two, and a significant chunk of Phase Three. The TIF district was already being planned before the grant funding was canceled. Because of that, projects that would have been done with grant funding had to be included in the urban renewal plan’s schedule. With the added projects, the city’s ability to accomplish projects that are classified as “Additional Projects” will be more limited. “We would have been able to jump into (funding) Phase Three and the additional projects right away,” McLane said, later adding, “it’s a big hit for the potential growth of the community.” Below are the planned projects for the South Fifth Corridor: A list of planned projects. | City of Pocatello The post Here’s Pocatello’s plan to bring sidewalks, sewer lines and more to southernmost neighborhoods appeared first on East Idaho News.
Source: eastidahonews.com