The Future of Victor

A Compact & Livable City or a Sprawling Mess?

The City of Victor will hold its first public hearing for the City’s draft Comprehensive Plan next Thursday, January 7th from 7:00 - 9:00 pm. The hearing is before the City’s Planning & Zoning Commission, and written comments are due tomorrow (Thursday, Dec 31) by 5pm. 

The plan contains a lot of good stuff. Dark skies, viewsheds, and extensive pathways are proposed. The plan also recognizes that the city’s current population of about 2,400 will increase by 8% (181 people) in the next 5 years. However, the plan seeks to expand the city’s physical footprint by nearly 50% in the same timeframe.

Why the drastic increase? The draft plan reasons that the city should grow where utilities are available (some of which were constructed by developers of the late 2000’s boom-bust), land in the core is too expensive for developers to develop, and that sprawling into surrounding lands is necessary for “economic and social prosperity.”

After several weeks of filing public records requests, we believe we have now obtained all public comments submitted for the Comprehensive Plan. We’ll be putting out a full analysis, but, so far, we’ve found that there’s little to no public support for increasing the physical footprint of the city. On the contrary, many public comments seek to limit sprawl. 

Now is the time to make sure your voice is heard. In particular, you may want to consider the following:

• Should the city shrink its boundaries to the existing built area, or expand them?
• Should the city first seek to develop vacant lots, then surrounding areas? 
• If undeveloped lands at the city’s edge are upzoned, will that sap development energy in the core? 
• Should the current 4-block stretch of Main Street be nurtured as the downtown area, or should commercial development be expanded along Highway 33 north of Cedron Road?
• Should the farm fields north of Cedron Road and west of Hwy 33 be placed in rural county zoning, or be developed as high-density residential and commercial? 
• Other thoughts???

The city has conducted 3 surveys over the past year, but has not substantially engaged the public on where city boundaries should be. Teton Valley has a special character that features small-towns surrounded by vast open spaces. Where and how its cities grow - in this case, Victor - should be central in making good planning decisions. 

Email the Victor Planning Staff at planner@victorcityidaho.com to submit your comment. You can view the plan here. VARD's comment letter is here. Hurry - written comment is due by 5pm on Thursday, December 31st. The City Council may hold another public hearing on the Comp Plan - we’ll let you know if that happens.