Land for park donated to Idaho Falls Posted: December 19, 2014 4:28 p.m. By BRYAN CLARK bclark@postregister Eleven acres of land along the Snake River have been donated for a park Idaho Falls officials hope will be the “crown jewel” of the greenbelt. The city will name it Heritage Park, and it will feature both views of the Snake River and tributes to the founding and development of Idaho Falls, said Division of Parks and Recreation director Greg Weitzel. The land for the project was donated by Stafford and Woody Smith, in honor of their parents Albon and Mary. “We have an absolute hidden diamond here,” Stafford Smith said. Smith said he donated the land to pay tribute to the pioneers who founded the city. “We want to memorialize and celebrate the vision of those who carved a beautiful community out of the sagebrush,” he said. “We want to pay it forward, as they did for us.” The parcel, which includes an additional three acres of wetlands, includes prime riverfront along a series of small, cascading basalt falls that have been worn wavy and smooth by millennia of erosion. Smith said the property has not been appraised, so it is difficult to know its exact value. The site stretches about third of a mile along with western bank of the Snake River from Sunnyside Road north to Lower Idaho Falls Dam. The donated section of land is broken off of a 50-acre parcel Smith and his brother Woody purchased in 1997, with an eye to using it for future development. “We believed that the highest and best use of this property was to turn it into a park and make it available to the community generally,” Smith said. Weitzel said the city hopes to break ground by 2018. “We’re really excited to start designing and planning,” he said. “I really envision this being a more natural-themed park. Not baseball diamonds and all that.” Heritage Park will be one of the most scenic in the city, Weitzel said. “The viewscape here is what separates it from other parks we have along the greenbelt,” he said. Both Ball Ventures and the Rotary Club of Idaho Falls have made verbal commitments of financial support, though exact dollar figures have not been agreed upon, according to representatives of both organizations. “We’re all in,” said Ball chief development officer Eric Isom. “We’re in for whatever needs to happen to make this happen.” Kevin Call, chairman of Rotary’s Centennial Committee, said the civic club has decided to make the park a feature project in honor of the 100th anniversary of the organization’s founding, which will take place in 2018. “There will be a sizable capital campaign fund and duck race dollars in the future,” he said. The Idaho Falls City Council voted unanimously Thursday night to accept a development agreement for the property. “This will add great value to the community,” Council president Mike Lehto said. The park will be contiguous with, but distinct from, Ryder Park on the south side of Sunnyside. It will also complete a major connection in the Greenbelt between Ryder Park and Milligan Road. Photos by City of Idaho Falls
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 15:46:25 +0000
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