Pocatello city council approves city staff to renegotiate city impact boundaries for Northgate area

Thursday night, the Pocatello city council approved plans to renegotiate city impact boundaries.

An area of city impact is an area that is expected to be annexed or served by the city at some point. It basically means an area of expected growth where the city might extend.

The area being talked about is the Northgate Development – the area North and East of Chubbuck Road and the Satterfield neighborhood.

In 2015, the city council decided to reduce the city impact area but still stay within the urban service boundaries.

A year later, to accommodate the Northgate Development, the city made a request to expand the urban service boundaries. Now the city wants to work with Bannock County to renegotiate and expand the city impact area to include the Northgate Development area for possible future city annexation.

“Most people want to be annexed because of what you get with the city,” explained Matthew Lewis, senior planner for the city of Pocatello. “You get city roads, you get infrastructure, water, sewer and so forth. So developers and property owners will come to the city and they will be asked to be annexed for that purpose.”

Lewis said it makes sense for the Northgate area to be annexed into the city because of its location and the fact that it’s already within USB boundaries for the city. But he said right now, there are no definite plans to do that.

He said the renegotiating is a process for city planners to go through under Idaho Code and Lewis said what it does is help develop a long-term plan for the possibility of it happening in the future.

The decision Thursday night by the council means city staff has been authorized to ask the Bannock County Commission for a recommendation for the city impact area to be expanded.