Pocatello hosts first public input meeting for Portneuf River

About a dozen Old Town Pocatellans gathered Wednesday to hear what the city’s ideas are regarding the Portneuf River Vision Study.

Only Old Town residents were invited to come to the first public input meeting for the year. The city is currently working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to make changes to enhance the Portneuf River, like making it more accessible to the community or implementing mixed use development.

Hannah Sanger, Pocatello’s environmental coordinator, is trying to gather as much public input as possible to create a vision for the river that the city would like. So there’s a number of public input meetings planned for the year.

After hearing what the city and USACE have come up with so far, Stan Gates likes what he’s hearing.

“I’d like to see more private involvement, invite restaurants to get involved so that there are those venues along the river people can enjoy,” Gates said.

He did bring up one concern during the meeting: eminent domain. It’s the right of a government to take private land for public use.

“I’d like to see some commitment upfront to ensure we’re not going to use eminent domain,” Gates said.

In response to his concern, Sanger said there doesn’t seem to be a use for eminent domain in the process.

If you missed Wednesday’s meeting and are an Old Town resident, there’s another meeting on Saturday, Jan. 23, at the Veteran’s Memorial Building at 10 a.m.

The study’s first open house for all residents is on Tuesday, Feb. 9, at 4 p.m. at the Pocatello Community Charter School.

Anyone can submit comments online here.