Driggs Urban Renewal Board Trades a Year of Revenue

DRIGGS — The Driggs Urban Renewal Agency board voted Oct. 7 to begin creating a new urban renewal district downtown and to close its existing Main Street district early, in calendar year 2027, so the two will not cover the same property.

Before the votes, Dan Powers, a Teton County commissioner who also sits on the urban renewal board, asked, "So there's no urgency to do it tonight?" Chair Amanda Conner answered, "No," and the agency's attorney, Meghan Conrad of Elam & Burke, added: "No technical urgency. I think we don't want to wait too much longer to make the decision because we'll really be jammed."

Conner had opened the discussion by noting that Oct. 7 was the date "on our timeline that Megan had created for us to approve the resolution." She then asked whether to wait for board member Scott Tuttle, who was absent along with Commissioner River Osborn: "Do we know Tuttle's thoughts?"

The new district would cover about 71 acres between Main Street and First Street, from Harper Avenue south to Johnson Avenue, according to an eligibility report by planner Brad Cramer of Perspective Planning & Consulting. About 54 of those acres already sit in the Main Street district. "Before you can really open up the one, you've got to terminate the other," Cramer told the board.

Counting the proposed district, the combined base values of all of Driggs' urban renewal districts would equal 6.1% of the city's assessed value, the report shows, which Cramer called "still well under the threshold of 10%." The proposed district alone accounts for 4.6%; the rest is the Main Street district and the smaller Front Street district.

Eligibility report

The board first voted to accept Cramer's report, which found the area eligible under Idaho's urban renewal law. Commissioner John Hansford moved and Powers seconded, and the four members present approved it unanimously.

Cramer had judged two of the statutory conditions, unsafe conditions and conditions that endanger life or property, as not met. "I'm going to admit I was very split on this. I think I could have found either one of these to be met," he said.

Driggs Planning and Building Director Jade Krueger asked Cramer whether "unsafe would correlate to non-ADA compliant," adding, "that actually is a complaint I get often on First Street in particular." Conner then called for a motion to approve the resolution "with the amendments ... including the ADA compliance." "The change can be made before City Council," Conrad said.

Earlier in the evening, Conrad told the board that by going through the eligibility phase, "you're not binding anything." Under the process she described, the Driggs City Council considers the findings next and can then direct the agency to write an urban renewal plan for the district.

A new district

Powers then moved "to create the new DURA district as presented in the eligibility report," and Vice Chair Erica Rice seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Moments before the motion, Conner gave her reason for going ahead: "I personally do think it makes the most sense. Otherwise, we would be missing out on at least $1 million in revenue."

The figure came from Cramer. When Conner asked earlier whether he had any idea what revenue the new district might bring in, he said he had looked at one development parcel to see "what's the trade-off if you don't sunset early?" "Just that project alone over 20 years is roughly $1 million," he said of the tax-increment revenue, adding, "those are super uber rough numbers."

Main Street sunset

Powers moved to close Main Street District 1 early in 2027, then amended the motion at Conner's prompting to say "calendar" year 2027. Hansford seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.

Left alone, the Main Street district would run through 2028. Its plan and revenue allocation area "terminate December 31st, 2028," Conrad told the board, and its last payment would come from June 2029 tax receipts. Cramer's report said the agency was considering closing it by the end of 2026. Conrad said that was no longer possible: "We're really too late to terminate this" for 2026.

Closing in 2027 means "you're not going to get any money in 2028," she said. The agency's last check would come in June 2027, and it would stop taking money from the county after Sept. 30, 2027. The agency would adopt a resolution of intent to terminate no later than the fourth Monday of July 2027, and the city council's ordinance closing the district "doesn't have to happen until December of 2027," Conrad said.

Later in the meeting, the board tabled its Sept. 2 minutes after two members abstained, one saying they had not attended that meeting.

What to watch: The Driggs City Council lists the eligibility report among its anticipated items for Oct. 20.

Driggs Urban Renewal Board Trades a Year of Revenue for a New District

Eligibility report

A new district

Main Street sunset

Sources