Birch Crossing: Victor Rejects 172-Unit Rental Density

VICTOR — The Planning and Zoning Commission rejected the proposed density for Birch Crossing, a 172-unit rental housing development on 10 acres near Birch Street and Baseline Road, at the March 19 hearing. Commissioners voted unanimously to continue the application and directed the developer to return with lower-density zoning, a requirement that would force a redesign from apartments to duplexes.

Now, between hearings, the developer is doing something unusual: hosting a voluntary neighborhood open house on April 9 to make its case to residents before the commission takes the matter up again on April 16.

The developer, D&B Partners, LLC, filed applications in January to annex and rezone three parcels of unincorporated county land totaling 13.38 acres. The land sits as a county inholding, surrounded on three sides by city limits, between the eastern end of Birch Street and Baseline Road, within blocks of Victor Elementary School.

D&B Partners requested RM-1 and RM-2 multifamily zoning, which would allow apartment buildings up to three stories. The commission supported annexation but rejected the density. Their continuance motion directed the applicant to consider RS-7 zoning on the northern Stewart parcel and RS-3 on the development parcels. RS-3 caps building types at duplexes. If that zoning holds, the 172-unit apartment project as designed cannot be built.

What the developer proposed

The Birch Crossing application calls for 160 apartment units in several three-story buildings and 12 duplex townhome units, all rentals. The unit mix is weighted toward two-bedrooms: 30 one-bedroom units, 82 two-bedrooms, 36 three-bedrooms, and 12 four-bedrooms in the apartments, plus 12 duplex townhomes. The site plan shows 288 parking spaces, a pool, community room, fitness center, and landscaped courtyards. The project would extend Birch Street east to connect with Baseline Road and include surface improvements to Baseline.

Staff conditions included a ban on short-term rentals for 108 of the units and deed-restricted workforce housing requirements for 24 apartment units and 4 townhomes, percentages carried over from conditions the city council applied to a prior application on the same property by a different developer (Snavely Group), which was approved but never built.

What happened at the hearing

Planning Director Kimberly Kolner presented a staff report that supported annexation and acknowledged the project's alignment with several goals in the city's Comprehensive Plan. She also flagged a key tension: while the comp plan's Downtown Neighborhood designation envisions 8 to 16 units per acre in this area, the RM-2 portion of the Birch Crossing project would produce roughly 20 units per acre. The staff report noted spot-zoning concerns and included a menu of alternative zoning options for the commission to consider.

D&B Partners, represented by principals Joe Finley and Debbie Johnson, presented the project as Missing Middle Housing aimed at the valley's workforce. Finley cited a preliminary market study showing a 192-unit housing deficit in Victor even after accounting for all near-term projects in the development pipeline. Johnson clarified that the project's traffic study found no degradation of service levels at nearby intersections, not that there would be no increase in traffic, and noted that the duplex units in the RM-1 zone were intended as single-story patio homes, not the two-story buildings shown in early concept images.

The applicant also asked the commission to remove a two-story height restriction along Baseline Road (preferring the code's standard 35-foot maximum) and to pay only a proportional share, roughly 40%, of Baseline Road improvements north of the project boundary. Both requests drew criticism from the public and commissioners.

Public comment

About half a dozen residents spoke, all opposed to the proposed density. Several emphasized they were not against development or housing on the site. They wanted less of it.

Rachel Amana, representing Valley Advocates for Responsible Development and a resident who can see the parcel from her back porch, delivered the most detailed critique, citing specific comp plan inconsistencies and the staff report's own spot-zoning concerns. She urged denial and asked whether Victor even has capacity to add 172 units to its wastewater system given the ongoing dispute with Driggs.

Kolner interjected on the record: the City of Driggs has refused to provide a will-serve letter to Victor for more than five years.

Other commenters raised traffic safety on Birch and at the SH-33 intersection, the impact on Victor Elementary, the lack of public access to proposed amenities like the pool, and the visual impact of three-story buildings on the neighborhood. Carol Nolokowski noted that seven existing Victor subdivisions are less than 50% built out and called for a moratorium on new development until current projects fill in.

The housing question nobody answered

The commission will have to reckon with this tension on April 16.

Victor's own planning staff acknowledged a "huge housing gap" during the hearing. The 2022 Teton Regional Housing Needs Assessment documents the deficit. D&B Partners' market study puts it at 192 units short even after accounting for projects in the pipeline.

But those pipeline projects, roughly 2,000 platted units across the valley, are single-family homes and for-sale townhomes. They serve buyers, not renters. They serve households with down payments, not the restaurant workers and nurses whose paychecks come from valley employers.

Birch Crossing, for all the density concerns it raises, proposes something that no other project in the pipeline offers: purpose-built rental housing with a workforce housing component, deed-restricted to people who work in Teton Valley. Victor's land development code defines workforce housing as units reserved for people employed by a valley business, plus seniors and disabled residents. The proposed conditions would have required 28 deed-restricted workforce units and banned short-term rentals on the majority of the project.

If the commission's suggested RS-3 zoning holds, the site could still be developed, but as duplexes, not apartments. That product type serves a different market at a different price point. The question is whether a smaller project on this site addresses the housing need that Victor's own plans say exists.

No one at the March 19 hearing spoke in favor of the project. No one from the workforce the project purports to serve, the dishwashers or healthcare workers who might rent a two-bedroom apartment for under $2,000 a month, was at the meeting. That absence is itself a data point about who shows up to 7 p.m. public hearings and who doesn't.

What to watch

D&B Partners hosts a neighborhood open house April 9, one week before the continued hearing. The developer's response, whether a scaled-down proposal, a challenge to the commission's suggested zoning, or a compromise, will set the project's trajectory.

April 9: Developer open house, 4:00–5:30 p.m., Victor City Council Chambers, 138 N Main Street, Suite 201. No city staff present. No formal action.
April 16: Continued P&Z public hearing, 7:00 p.m., same location. Public comment accepted in person or by email to [email protected]. Public comment is not accepted via Zoom.

The Planning and Zoning Commission is the recommending body. A final decision on annexation and rezoning goes to City Council.

Application materials, the staff report, and public comments received are available on the City of Victor P&Z meeting page.

The full notice from the developer:

NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING NOTICE: A developer-hosted Open House/Neighborhood Meeting for a proposed multifamily housing project located near East Birch and Baseline Road in Victor, Idaho, will be held Thursday, April 9, 2026, from 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM at City Council Chambers, 138 N Main Street, Suite 201, Victor, Idaho. Adjacent property owners and interested neighbors are invited. This is not a public meeting, City Staff will not be present, and no formal action will be taken. Contact D&B Partners at [email protected] for information.

Contact D&B Partners: Joe Finley, [email protected], 701-330-9187.