Ammon seeks to create a new urban renewal district

Ammon plans to establish an urban renewal district on various patches of vacant land in the northwest corner of the city that borders Idaho Falls.

The area under consideration falls in the two-mile stretch from Lincoln Road in the north to East 17^th Street in the south and the one mile between North 25^th Street and Ammon Road.

The intersection at 17^th and 25^th streets is home to the Grand Teton Mall. Additional retail real estate stretches south on 25th Street, the dividing line between Idaho Falls and Ammon.

“The core of the area is Hitt (25^th) and First,” City Administrator Micah Austin said. “We’re looking for higher density, preferably offices. We’re not looking for retail. We have enough low-density employment.”

Austin said city officials would also like to see industrial development at the northernmost area of the proposed district.

An urban renewal district would enable tax increment financing from the district to pay for bringing infrastructure such as roads and utilities to vacant lots rather than having developers pay the cost, Austin said.

A draft map has been drawn and the city is gathering data on every lot to confirm that they meet the state criteria to be included in an urban renewal district. Austin hopes to get preliminary approval by the end of the year.

The urban renewal district would be Ammon’s second. A roughly 40-acre district established in 1994 led to construction of the Ammon Town Center shopping center with Target, Albertsons, Chase Bank and smaller shops. It expires in 2024.