LOCAL DEVELOPER ADDING RURAL, URBAN HOUSING

Local developer adding both rural, urban housing to tight market

By JOHN O’CONNELL joconnell@journalnet.com May 19, 2021

Local developer Lyn Yost has separate residential projects in the works catering both to buyers seeking to live in an urban setting with modern amenities and those who prefer a quiet, pastoral lifestyle.

In the midst of an acute local housing shortage, there’s unmet demand for housing of all types. Despite skyrocketing costs of building supplies, developers such as Yost have been extremely active lately, adding new housing inventory that’s been selling faster than it can be built. The buildout, however, has brought its own growing pains, as homes are springing up where residents have long enjoyed the elbow room of living adjacent to empty lots and open fields. In Chubbuck, Yost is behind a large, multi-use development called Northside Crossing at New Day, where crews are now building a network of themed city parks to be connected by more than 7 miles of paved trails. The first dozen homes, located within the development’s “55 and active” neighborhood, have either been completed or are under construction.

A few miles to the north, in the Tyhee area of unincorporated Bannock County, Yost’s planned Mountain View Estates subdivision will offer buyers 3-acre lots with pastures for raising a few horses or personal livestock.

Plans for Mountain View Estates call for 48 homes to be built on a 152-acre farm field southeast of Philbin and Reservation roads. The land has been farmed by the Loveland family.
 
“I feel like I’m doing it as right as possible without creating too high of a density of an area,” Yost said. “It does help 48 new families that want to maybe get a horse, have a couple of cows, have some organic feed and enjoy Idaho for what it is.”
 

Laura Lundquist and a couple of other property owners who reside near the Mountain View Estates site have circulated a petition in opposition to the project, signed by 57 neighbors as of Monday afternoon. Lundquist considers Mountain View to be a prime example of urban sprawl that will ruin the quality of life for current residents who “have their heart set on living in the country.”

 
“It may not be illegal but it is immoral and unethical what they’ve done,” Lundquist said. Yost will present the concept for Mountain View Estates to the Bannock County Planning and Development Council at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday at the council’s office, located at 5500 S. Fifth Ave. Seating is limited for the public hearing, which will also be broadcast via Zoom. The meeting agenda also includes a separate request by another individual to rezone 27 acres of farm land at Rio Vista and Tyhee roads to residential suburban, although no accompanying proposal for development has been submitted for that parcel.
 
In a letter she wrote to the council, Lundquist requested that Yost’s minimum lot size at Mountain View be increased to 10 acres. She cited concerns about noise, light pollution, loss of habitat and intrusions on peace and privacy. Yost noted that the county identified the agricultural ground from Chubbuck to the Tyhee area as being well suited for rural-residential zoning in its comprehensive plan update last year.
 

“A lot of people want this country living,” Yost said. “We’re addressing a market need and doing it in a very responsible way. It will be a well-built, well-organized subdivision.” Yost won’t be involved in building homes on the lots he’s offering, but he envisions the homes will be priced at $500,000 to $600,000 each. Yost is also planning a pedestrian bridge over a canal that bisects the proposed subdivision’s site to make the neighborhood friendly for people walking, biking or riding horses.

Yost said his neighborhood will be adjacent to another developer’s comparably sized residential project.
Within Chubbuck city limits, Yost’s Northside Crossing project will take advantage of a new municipal creative community zoning designation, allowing for a wide variety of housing types to be built at a high density, but with a large expanse of open space set aside for communal amenities.
 

The City Council increased Chubbuck’s land mass by an estimated 24 percent Wednesday when it voted to annex the property from unincorporated Bannock County.

The new proposal calls for a pedestrian-friendly community with a mixture of residential and commercial properties, and lots of public amenities.
It continues a “multi-use” development trend set by the Northgate project in northeast Pocatello, where builders similarly vow to produce a “walkable” community, encompassing thousands of homes, a commercial area and a technology park.
 
Both Northgate and the recently proposed Chubbuck development will be accessed by a “Northgate” interchange planned for completion late next summer.
The Chubbuck development has yet to be named, but has been informally described as “Chubbuck’s Northgate.”
It’s uncertain how many homes or businesses the project will include. But one of the developers, Lyn Yost of Tyhee expects to break ground next spring on 200 single-family and multi-family homes — valued at between $275,000 and $375,000 — as well as light commercial space within his 100 acres alone. Some of his homes, in a “55 and active” area, will cater to senior residents who enjoy outdoor exercise but prefer smaller yards. Chubbuck has averaged of about 2.5 percent annual growth throughout the past decade. But Yost is banking that a forthcoming expansion of the local FBI center will create hundreds of jobs and hasten that pace. He also noted that area housing inventories are historically low.
 
“This is more than a neighborhood. It’s truly a community,” Yost said. “While that market may not exist now with our current citizens, the FBI will be bringing in jobs from out of state, and they’re used to seeing that type of development.”
Yost and the other property owners of the annexed land are collaborating on a “master plan” to coordinate public amenities, such as parks, gazebos, paths and a pool.
 
Yost envisions creating a “walkable” community, where streets bustle with playing children, traffic moves slowly and residents spend a lot of time outdoors, hiking on a network of paved paths tying homes to public amenities and retail areas.
 
“The intent here is to truly become community builders, and not merely developers,” Yost said.
 
Yost said the project was made possible by a new “Creative Community” zoning classification, which the City Council also enacted Wednesday. The new zoning designation affords builders greater design flexibility, provided that their proposals aim to enhance safety and convenience for walkers, cyclists and children at play.
Chubbuck Planning and Development Director Devin Hillam explained Creative Community builders, such as Yost, will be free to submit applications with higher densities and smaller lot sizes than allowed under the general code, if it helps them add more community gardens and other public spaces. They may also propose streets that are narrower than city code allows to slow down traffic. Proposals under the zoning will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, Hillam said.
 
“(Creative Communities) are not designed around the needs of vehicles. They’re designed around the needs of people,” Hillam said.
Yost was one of several developers who joined the Chubbuck City Council on a late-spring trip to South Jordan, Utah, where they visited the progressive Daybreak community to get an idea of what a Creative Community should include.
The local school in Daybreak had hundreds of bicycles parked at its bike racks. Yards were small, but there were people outdoors walking and visiting. Walking paths, open spaces and public landscaping were ubiquitous. “It’s getting away from that cookie-cutter development and something that has a little more design to it,” said Chubbuck Mayor Kevin England. “As I talk to developers, they are excited about it.”

Hillam said driveways accessing homes in Daybreak weren’t connected to streets, allowing pedestrians to use sidewalks without fear of backing cars. Homes in Daybreak had rear-loaded garages or carports accessing alleys. Hillam said streets in Daybreak were intentionally curvy, and both shoulders were open to on-street parking to calm motorized traffic.

Yost said his neighborhood will include many of the same elements as Daybreak, including narrow streets and nontraditional garages. Yost prefers “subservient” garages, positioned on the rear or side of homes to emphasize a home’s front porch, thereby encouraging neighbors to socialize.”
 

His 226-acre Chubbuck development will also include commercial space. Sterling Urgent Care, for example, is scheduled to break ground later this week, Yost said.

Northside Crossing is one of five developments planned within the larger New Day project, which will encompass 1,800 acres.

Yost said 10 homes within his “55 and active” neighborhood sold “before we can even get a roof on them, and we’ve got a waiting list to build.” Paving on division four, which includes traditional housing, was scheduled to commence on Tuesday. Yost expects to build about 25 to 30 homes per year, and when complete, Northside Crossing will have 600 doors with a mixture of single-family and multi-family housing.
 

Yost said jogging trails connecting his 36 acres of public park space were also scheduled to be paved on Tuesday. Chubbuck requires builders to either build their own parks or contribute to a municipal fund to support parks. Yost said the value of the parks he’s planning to build will be triple what the city requires.

 
Yost is planning a large, 10-acre park with several sports fields, as well as several satellite parks. One satellite park will have pickleball courts. Another park will have three or four dozen gardening plots, which will be available to lease for $50 per year, with preference granted to residents of the development. He’s also planning an exercise park, which will include exercise stations with equipment such as pull-up bars and a bench press machine that uses a person’s bodyweight to create resistance. Kiosks will be located throughout the trail network indicating the distance from one park to another for joggers and walkers. In addition to building material costs rising dramatically, Yost said he’s been warned concrete may be rationed in the coming weeks.
 

Chase Clark, Bannock County’s building official, said permitting for new construction has increased slightly from last year, despite the rise in material costs.

“If building materials were affordable as they once were we would definitely see a record,” Clark said.
 

Clark said many people have been getting permits and building foundations but are waiting for lumber, wire and other costs to go down before commencing with construction of structures.

“Any way they can they’re trying to build,” Clark said
 

CONTACT US TODAY!

Ready to get started on the home of your dreams? Reach out to us today for a free consultation!

OUR INFO:

CONTACT

OUR PARTNERS: