Shelley seeks input as it plans for future

SHELLEY, Idaho (KIFI) - The City of Shelley needs the help of its residents as it seeks to plan its future. The city is holding two informational meetings regarding its future, and while most are excited about what the future might be, they want to make sure the foundation is laid.

The city says its goal is to try and hear from as many residents as possible.

"The key to planning and zoning is planning. If you're spending all your time, zoning, Then there's a problem. So if we can plan properly and we can plan, the right way, then we can grow and we can accommodate developers and people that want to open new businesses and things like that in our community," said Shane Wootan from Shelley's Public and Zoning department.

Those who came to the meeting poured over the city maps. To see exactly where Shelley's impact area was and what the current, zones are in the Shelley City limits. Many were focused on how the city could continue to grow.

"Growth can happen healthy or can happen very unhealthy. And where it's been going the last couple of years, it's been very unhealthy and it's been stress in our community," Elijah Vandehen said.

"The current plans are mostly going for growth on the north side of town. Like they've got a lot of area between here and Firth that could also be planned out. Don't count out the farmers. The farmers need the fields, but also a lot more businesses could happen on the south side of town," Gary Cox said.

"I think the most important thing is, is sustainable growth. I think they say 3% is sustainable because of the infrastructure structure," Joyce Beck said.

However, everyone had a different idea of how that growth should happen.

"The city crew works hard to make it a beautiful place. So they're doing a great job. They just we just need to get the comprehensive plan to say in the future this is what will tolerate," Beck said.

"You can grow without giving up your identity. There's no reason for Shelley to be a whole bunch of apartment complexes  and be run by a whole bunch of slumlords," Vandehen said.

"I'm planning for like a dino raptor park, and an otter exhibit," Daniel Cox said.

"I'm planning for a shooting range, so people taking hunters ed can really have a go at practicing their shooting," Colter Cox said.

"And I like to see some better truck routes in. Shelley We have a lot of trucks and industry is not going to slow down," Gary said.

Wootan says they were happy with the turnout but are wanting to hear from more people.

"Obviously, the more information that we can glean at this point in time, then the better the plan that we're going to get," Wootan said.

One such way you can voice your opinion is by going to the last public meeting February 6th at 6pm at Hobbs Middle School.

Another way is by filling out an online survey.

"That'll probably close mid-February. So then we have to take all of those all that and all that information and all that data and try to, go through it and figure out what how everything's affected and what our plan is," Wootan said.

You can find the online survey here.