The quiet side of the Tetons?

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

By PJH Staff

Teton County, Idaho, was not so long ago a quiet valley, home to old-family farmlands. Increasingly over the last few decades, a number implants, many of whom came to the Teton Valley by way of Jackson Hole have opted to move a little farther west, over Teton Pass, either commuting for work or – more and more commonly – finding livelihoods in eastern Idaho.

Very recently the growth in the Teton Valley has hit such a rapid pace that many are concerned that what before could have been called a “sleeper community” to Jackson Hole – providing attainable housing, rural character, even a nice lawn – is booming into something beyond recognition. Land speculation has driven prices up, and big development pays top dollar for the land remnants of an agricultural tradition that has all but died already. 

County Planner Kurt Hibbert said Tuesday five new subdivision applications had come in the last week alone, bringing the total number of proposed developments currently in different stages of the county approval process to 87. 

“I’ve been told there are more subdivisions in the pipe than all other eastern Idaho counties combined,” Hibbert said. “If that’s true, it’s a very significant number.”

The planner said he is concerned with infrastructural strains in a county not yet prepared to handle the land rush and without the ordinances to alleviate footing the costs of such.
Of course, not all developments are created equally, and amid the motorized rumblings and dust swirls spinning off dirt mounds around the county, there is some good development in an area that is undergoing the rapid change facing much of the Mountain West in the new Manifest Destiny of wealth and investment.

The two articles that follow describe two new developments – Huntsman Springs and River Rim Ranch – just two examples of a trend that will continue to reshape Teton Valley, Idaho, for years, and probably decades, to come.
PERMALINK:
The quiet side of the Tetons? | Planet JH News Article: Victor/Driggs, ID

Leave a Comment