Treasure Valley

	Remnants of the railroad era survive in Boise's Eighth Street warehouse district. A cold storage plant at 504 S. Ninth St. housed the Idaho Fish and Poultry Company until 1986. (Historic American Building Survey, National Park Service).

Boise finds new way to identify troubled, declining areas

Idaho Statesman
January 1, 2006

As Boise starts a new year, city officials and neighborhood leaders continue to face challenges in maintaining Boise´s quality of life.

Treasure Valley Growth: Small town Boise lives only in memory

Idaho Statesman
January 2, 2006

Twenty-five years ago, Boise was a town of 100,000 people. Meridian and Eagle had more tractors, cows and horses than people. Miles of farmland separated Treasure Valley towns.

Landfill proposal draws complaints from landowners

Idaho Statesman
January 13, 2006

A clash is brewing over the future of several thousand acres of sagebrush-dotted land southeast of Boise. At issue is whether the land can best accommodate Boise-area growth by providing homes for new residents or new space to dispose of the region’s growing amount of trash.

Two development plans for Valley hit rough times

Idaho Statesman
January 14, 2006

Two long-range regional plans now being drafted have hit some proverbial bumps in the road.

	Kooskia, population 675, commands a fork of the Clearwater River in Idaho County. (Amber Technologies LTD).

Northern Idaho

Post Falls expands urban renewal district

Spokesman-Review
December 7, 2005

Post Falls Mayor Clay Larkin broke a tie vote Monday to include more land in an urban renewal district that will help pay for an interchange at Interstate 90 and Greensferry Road.

Post Falls, Idaho, grapples with its growth

Spokesman-Review
November 27, 2005

Post Falls resident Robin Powell cringes over the number of new subdivisions gobbling up the Rathdrum Prairie. "We are wasting our land resources and endangering our aquifer without even seeming to think or care."

CityLink bus service gets rolling

Spokesman-Review
November 4, 2005

At 76, Patricia Schneider doesn't drive anymore. So when she learned that a free fixed-route bus service was starting in Kootenai County, she marked the ribbon-cutting date on her calendar.

Dozens more condos planned for downtown

Spokesman-Review
July 7, 2005

Plans for 73 more luxury condos are under way downtown, even as Coeur d'Alene's leaders ponder what a spate of high-end development will mean for the community.

	Suburban growth near Idaho Falls has forced the city to consider dark-sky laws to control light pollution. (info@idahofalls.net).

Southern Idaho

Rural group’s new leader will help cities prepare for growth

Times-News
May 19, 2005

GOODING -- The new facilitator of a rural economic development coalition said he intends to work alongside leaders of individual communities to develop each area's goals and direction.

Apartments, offices fuel Twin Falls building boom

Times-News
August 24, 2005

TWIN FALLS -- New apartments, new offices and another hefty batch of home starts in July sent the city's construction values soaring.

Editorial: State should grant local voters option on sales tax

Times-News
December 15, 2005

While most state legislators would be hanged by their toenails if they advocated high sales taxes, leaders in counties and cities are openly in favor of local option sales taxes.

News Flashback

Idaho checks in as third-fastest growing state

Idaho Statesman
March 13, 1999

Idaho's population has grown 22 percent so far this decade, making it the third-fastest growing state, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released Friday.

Herders must bypass subdivisions

Idaho Statesman
April 18, 1999

Once coyotes were the major source of concern. Now it’s people, houses, dogs, bicycles and motorcycles.

Idaho recreation evolves from Old West to urban

Idaho Statesman
April 25, 1999

Love of outdoors remains high, but now it’s closer to home.

	Boosters hope tiny Fairfield in the Camas County can become a ski-town for nearby Soldier Mountain. (Peg Owens, Idaho Tourism).

Idaho report: Rural-urban gap persists

Idaho Statesman
August 9, 1999

Rural Idaho is a great place to live, and it's narrowing the education gap with the state's cities; but it continues to suffer from higher jobless rates, lower incomes; and shortages in medical services, according to a new report.

Legislative tour puts focus on gulf between two Idahos

Idaho Statesman
November 16, 2000

to MOSCOW -- For two days, lawmakers ricocheted around North Idaho, hearing uplifting stories about upstart businesses blossoming in the right climate and pulling their rural economies up with them.

Redistricting will redefine Legislature

Idaho Statesman
March 25, 2001

For the first time in Idaho history, the makeup of the state Legislature is about to shift from a majority of rural legislative districts to mostly urban districts, and the state's political map will be turned inside-out.

Redistricting turns to central Idaho

Idaho Statesman
June 20, 2001

to LEWISTON -- After praising a plan to remap Idaho's five Panhandle legislative districts, the state's first redistricting commission turned Tuesday night to the prickly issue of how to draw the huge central Idaho districts and the smaller ones that abut the Washington and Oregon borders.

Bonners Ferry mayor: Anger won't help rural Idaho

Idaho Statesman
November 9, 2001

Central Idaho residents expressed a common feeling that federal policy has hurt Idaho's rural communities. They wondered out loud whether urban residents simply want rural communities to die.

Our View: Urban lawmakers can help get transit out of neutral gear

Idaho Statesman
October 23, 2003

The Legislature, like Idaho itself, is becoming more urban. Thirty-four of the state´s 105 legislators live in Ada and Canyon counties. If lawmakers want to show that they finally get it on urban issues, here´s a great place to start: They can help local governments find ways to pay for mass transit.

Blackfoot, Idaho, considers urban renewal plan

Post Register
November 15, 1997

For most, urban blight brings to mind a rotting inner city with stinking slums, rampant crime and lost hopes. In Blackfoot it means older buildings, decaying streets and outdated sewer and water lines.

Northern Idaho

Salmon, Idaho, urban renewal tax district upsets residents, area official

Post Register
July 27, 1999

Urban renewal districts, designed to resurrect blighted city slums, have been used in a number of eastern Idaho communities to raise money for roads, sidewalks and other infrastructure improvements, as well as economic development.

East Central Idaho planning, development association celebrates
25 years

Post Register
April 5, 2000

In the past 25 years, the East Central Idaho Planning and Development Association has helped bring more than $110 million to this region.