Collaborative effort to fix up downtown Pocatello

A new development plan is looking to spruce up Pocatello’s downtown area and reuse some existing infrastructure. The plan is being worked on by the city, Old Town Pocatello Inc. and nine Idaho State University grad students.

Since the collaborative effort just started recently, there aren’t many concrete plans yet. The goal for the plan is to make the downtown area more pedestrian-friendly. Another focus will be to bring more housing development into the area.

Wendy Vaughn, a downtown business owner, says these improvements are necessary and needed.

“This is an area where you should be able to walk and feel comfortable and see everything you need to do right downtown in your own home,” said Vaughn. “It’s definitely needed, we need a lot of help down here.”

For housing development, Old Town Pocatello Executive Director Stephanie Palagi says there are eight buildings with spaces to utilize. Odyssey Bar, for example, has empty space above it that can be renovated into one or two bedroom condos.

“The trend across the nation is folks want to retire and live downtown in a more pedestrian area,” said Palagi. “We have a lot of amenities that folks who want to live downtown are looking for.”

The ISU graduate students who will be helping with the plan come from Jeffrey Callen’s public administration class. Each student will be presenting research on different topics like public safety, preservation and housing, among others.

One of the students, Adam Brewer, is focusing on foot traffic downtown. He’s noticed there’s a lack of crosswalks at intersections in the area, which causes a lot of jaywalking. With his research, he hopes to identify problem areas to fix.

“I’ll identify those locations using mapping software,” he said, “then propose to the city and Old Town organization where I believe we should invest funding into creating crosswalks.”

As for Vaughn, she hopes the changes will keep people from leaving Pocatello.

“We are becoming an older community, so it’s nice to keep those college students involved to show them the accessibility and enjoyment they can have here in town without leaving. We want to keep them here,” she said.

The ISU grad students will present their findings by the end of April. A rough draft of the plan is expected sometime in the summer.