Idaho Falls

IDAHOFALLSMAGAZINE.COM  3 the City of Idaho Falls to support us by administering the program along with the Historic Preservation's Commissions for recommendations and guidance through the process. By last summer, we had com- pleted over 100 projects with $834,000 in HUD funding. Business owners invested a match require- ment of at least 25 percent – a true testament to economic devel- opment. Last spring, Greg Crockett, chair of the IFDDC board, urged me to take a good look at the deteriorating state of the Broadway sidewalks and planter boxes, the downtown corners at each intersection and think through how to consider the perceived "parking prob- lem" downtown. With the success- ful collaboration from the city, we were able to put together a plan to request signifi- cant funding from the Idaho Falls Redevelopment Agency, chaired by Lee Radford. With matching funds from IFDDC of $50,000, we successfully secured nearly $1 million in funding to complete three projects: Redesign of the Broadway sidewalks, trees and planter boxes. Redesign of the downtown corners and tie in the overall look and feel to match the design to the Riverwalk. Parking infrastructure improvements, including technology to help move our parking management efforts into the modern day. Downtown Art We couldn't just keep things focused only on parking, sidewalks and trees, however. We also wanted to focus on Public Art projects. We were able to secure $8500 from the CHC Foundation and match that with $5,000 from the IFHDF to wrap the downtown traffic boxes with artwork loaned to us from the Art Museum of Eastern Idaho's permanent collection. The total project cost $13,500. The second effort was to install three new murals downtown. After a call to artists, three painters were selected to install artworks on the exteriors of Villa Coffeehouse, SnakeBite and Willowtree Gallery. The three murals joined the new mural we commissioned with partnership from the ACLU of Idaho in the fall of 2017 that was installed on the side of Channel Blend. Parking Pilot Project With the $100,000 in funding for signif- icant parking improvements downtown, this allowed us to purchase five off-street meters. These meters were installed a month ago in the parking lots IFDDC man- ages, and will be brought on-line soon. We also have a new enforcement vehicle that will more effectively moni- tor downtown parking. The last effort was to help support some marketing funding to develop the ideas in real life to support the efforts. With a well- researched and vetted plan, the city council approved our efforts to begin managing the on-street parking as a pilot project and effectively message on how and where to park throughout the downtown area. There's plenty of parking downtown: 37 blocks from G Street to Cliff Street. That includes approximately 1,100 on- street spots and 3,100 off street. Our goal is to help the public utilize the parking correctly and keep the employ- ees and all-day parking patrons in the off-street parking lots. This will allow for on-street parking to be available for customers and visitors. New this year is a status report that is live on our website to report the health and true data of downtown with a new tool from My Sidewalk. We have a tab on our website a "State of Downtown" that is updated with accurate data constantly provided through the Census Tracts. You'll find more data and information on that in this special section. Downtown Idaho Falls is a special place. I've heard it described a handful of ways, but I think I love how it was described best by Lee Radford who has written an article about The Bonneville Hotel project for this section. We are the beneficiaries of people who had huge goals with vision and audacious goals. If you look back, it was a bold idea to build a bridge across a river. Another bold idea was to develop a system of canals and dams to give us agricultural depth and prosperity. Another bold decision was to put generators in our river and capture a resource we had readily available for our community's good. Bold and audacious goals bring together the visions that in our community that pulls us together and helps unify us. This is what down- town is about, and it is a gift. IF BRITTNEY BENNETT PHOTO STEVE SMEDE PHOTO

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