For the week of July 16 - 22, 2003

Growth in Hailey and Bellevue tops charts

Natives add their two cents

---

By MATT FURBER
Express Staff Writer

Although the official numbers will be released later this summer, the U.S Census Bureau estimates that through July 1, 2002, the cities of Hailey and Bellevue have been two of the fastest growing population bases in Idaho.

According to the estimate in the two-year period from July 1, 2000, to July 1, 2002, Hailey’s population grew about 12 percent, increasing to 7,084 residents in 2002 from 6,319 residents in 2000. Bellevue grew just over 6.5 percent to 2,008 residents from 1,883 in the same period.

The growth rate is higher than even Nampa, which saw just over 8 percent growth for the 2000 Census. Population growth for the booming city, west of the capital, Boise, dropped to about 6 percent for the 2000 to 2002 period. Twin Falls saw a 2.6 percent increase, growing to 35,663 residents. Pocatello was the only major Idaho city that saw a small decrease. Its population dropped 1 percent. Some small communities in southern Idaho have also seen decreases. Both Rupert and Minidoka saw 3.9 percent decreases in population.

Residential building permit applications, indicators of growth in the Wood River Valley, have increased dramatically in the two cities, where property is comparatively more affordable.

According to Bellevue building official, John Riley, the city saw 34 homes completed in 2001 and 46 more in 2002. He says the increase has been dramatic.

"You ain’t seen nothin’ yet," Riley said. "Things are moving right along this year too."

"We are extremely busy," said Bellevue Planning and Zoning administrator Steve Almquist.

In Hailey, applications for single family home residential building permits are actually coming in slower this year and the totals were nearly equivalent at 99 in 2001 and 101 in 2002, said Hailey building official Dave Ferguson.

"The trend in Hailey is going to remodels, partly for a lack of lots," said Building Contractors of the Wood River Valley Association Executive director Gene Seymour. "If people can’t find the lots they want in Ketchum or Sun Valley, they’ll look out in the (county)."

As affordable residential building lots dry up as far south as Hailey, the trend has not yet hit commercial development.

"Commercial building is going to go haywire," said Ferguson. "There is a lot going on in Hailey right now."

He said the south Woodside commercial district is about "built out," but development in the Airport West subdivision and on Main Street is going to get very busy as businesses, including some from Sun Valley and Ketchum, look for more affordable property.

Indications of local growth trends don’t come only from building data. Observations come from the street, too. Idaho residents with views from behind the grocery store check out stand and the delivery truck windscreen may be equally valid coming from the historical perspective of life-ling residents.

"We see ‘percent’ increases in our business every year," said Atkinsons’ grocery store manager Monte Brothwell, who was born in Illinois, but has been in the Wood River Valley most of his life. "I could see (that the population is growing) partly because of the Balmoral projects. That brings in a lot."

He clearly remembers the 1960s and 1970s when the populations of Bellevue and Hailey totaled a few hundred. He thinks the poor planning for growth is contributing to traffic and affordable housing problems in the valley.

"(Look) at the prices in the upper valley," he said. "The nimby (not in my back yard) attitude is going to strangle them. The working class lives in Hailey and Bellevue. If they provided housing where there is work, they wouldn’t have traffic problems."

After watching the street and making deliveries in the Wood River Valley for 17 years, Jay Hill, a Matco professional tools and equipment distributor and third generation Idaho native, says the development has been extraordinary.

"There is more competition now, too," he said speaking from his step van while taking a break in the shade, Monday July 14. "I used to be the only one making deliveries up here."

Hill does not begrudge the added challenges of an expanding economy, but as a man with a farming and homesteader’s heritage he does have concerns about the change in values.

"It is completely outrageous the way people have come here and built monuments to themselves," he said. "I have seven grand children. I worry about the waste of resources and what’s going to happen to the next generation. I am lucky that I was born when I was."

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.