City of Pocatello discussing ways to make the city more walkable

The City of Pocatello is looking to make the city more walkable.

The city, divided by the railyard, has sidewalks galore in both the Old Town and Yellowstone areas, but it’s not often you see people utilizing them.

Now, the Gate City is looking at potential ways to change that.

“The purpose of the meeting was to really just bring the issue to light,” Public Works project manager Maggie Clark explained. “We can do things as a community to make it more walkable and just to strive towards a goal of being universally accessible.”

The city is working with Boise-based Vitruvian Planning to help generate potential ideas and to get an understand of what the possibilities for the city are.

Currently, it seems that a lot of the focus is on the Old Town area.

“Old Town has the bones, it has the street pattern, it has a lot of the library, it also needs a shot in the arm,” Vitruvian’s Chirs Danley said. “There is so much possibility in the older part of Pocatello.”

Danley noted other cities in the Gem State like Twin Falls and Caldwell that have recommitted to their old downtown areas and seen a big pay off.

“You’re seeing land use pop up, you’re seeing movie theatres and boutique hotels,” he explained, noting that all of this is made possible by giving people the ability to walk.

Danley believes that it’s that “freedom” of not needing to drive everywhere, including places like City Hall, that give way to growth of the sort.

In fact, one of the ideas that has been discussed would be to move Pocatello City Hall to Old Town.

“That idea was included in the River Vision, but at this point nothing is imminent,” Clark said.

Still, Danley believes that the best chance to make Pocatello not only walkable but also accessible is through Old Town.

“You can’t do that on Yellowstone. You can do that in Old Town and all of the things that we know are ripe and are necessary for a really vibrant community and city center are in Old Town,” he said.

The school districts, in Danley’s opinion, also play a big role when it comes to the potential that the city has.

“We can’t keep putting schools on fringe areas,” he said. “We need them to come back and be part of our neighborhoods.”

Of course, any and all plans will come down to funding and the approval of local leadership.

“So if we could just chip away at it, one project at a time, working on getting grants, working on just other funding options that we can get, then we can slowly just build it up and become more walkable,” Clark said.

But before any of the major changes can be made or even really considered, the city is getting small projects done.

The city currently has plans to retrofit 12 area curb ramps this fall, a small step towards enhancing walkability.