Idaho Falls looks to revitalize northwest corner of Yellowstone Highway and Lincoln Road

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) - The City of Idaho Falls is looking to revitalize one commercial area that is slowly losing more businesses.

Idaho Falls continues to grow in population which brings an increase in value to the city overall.

Yet, there are a few places that are losing their value.

Today, we looked at how the city is trying to bring more businesses back to northwest corner of Lincoln Road and Yellowstone Highway.

Take a look at this map.

This is the proposed Yellowstone Square-Urban Renewal District. 

City leaders have approved the eligibility requirements of this area to become an urban renewal district. 

Now, the Idaho Falls Redevelopment Agency will work with a developer on next steps, and if all goes well, development will begin through a tax incentive. 

That's called tax increment financing. 

"There's a vast difference between what your property is currently assessed tax wise. If no home was on the property, but if a home was on the property, then obviously the taxes for that property are much higher. So then the city is collecting more taxes in the end after development."

To put that simply, tax increment financing captures the increase of property tax revenue, to support improvements to the area. 

"We decided to check out the area that the urban renewal project is trying to help.  It's on the corner of yellowstone highway and lincoln road. What was once a proud area back in the 1970s has slowly faded away through the years. And now we have multiple buildings here that are abandoned."

But it isn't just lack of traffic causing concerns. 

"There's a section of the property that has a lot of basalt, which is a lot of rock. And to actually bore down to get utilities to through that rock is extremely costly and preventative."

However, when new construction is finished, grossarth says the developer will have up to 20 years of the tax benefit to pay back improvement costs. 

And in the end, new business means patrons coming back to the northside of Idaho Falls. 

"They just don't have the traffic anymore. And so that's what winds up happening. So the mob in this case moved and said, well, we're moving over to the east side of town.  And because they did that, then the restaurants around it go in this area."

There are a few other areas that are also under a urban renewal plan within Idaho Falls.

One of the other notable ones just down the road from this intersection right around the new location of the Idaho Falls Police Station.