S 5th St & Johnson Ave Improvement Project

S 5th St & Johnson Ave Improvement Project

(LID 2025-1)

Background

The Driggs City Council, by adoption of Resolution 429-25 on June 25, 2025, has initiated the process for organizing a Local Improvement District that would provide a minor part of the funding (less than 35%) to improve South 5th Street and Johnson Ave as paved residential collector roads.

A Local Improvement District (LID) is a tool provided for in Idaho Statute Title 50, Chapter 17 , allowing cities to levy assessments for a portion of the cost of improvements like streets on the properties that will benefit from those improvements, and to borrow against that revenue, allowing payment of assessments over a 15-20 year period. The major portion of funding allocated to this project includes local-option sales tax, impact fees and grants.

Preliminary Design

A Project Open House was held at City Hall on Monday, November 3, 2025, from 5pm to 7pm. The Project Engineer, Keller Associates, presented the project’s preliminary design, including options for traffic calming and the local improvement district assessment method (see links below).

• Design Graphics for Nov. 3rd Open House , including Project Extent, Street Cross-sections, and Traffic Calming Options
• Preliminary Local Improvement District Boundary & Assessment Method
• Preliminary Design Drawings Note that this is a first draft from the Project Engineer. Staff has requested a number of revisions, including changes to the alignment of road, sidewalk and pathway.
• Preliminary Cost Estimate: including 20% contingency = $3,500,000. The goal will be to get this down around or below $3M. Cost saving measures such as re-using much of the existing road's gravel material are being pursued, which will bring the cost down significantly.

City Council Work Session - December 16th

City Council will hold a work session with City staff and Keller Associates to review identified property owner concerns on the fairness of the LID Boundary, LID Cost Share and LID Assessment Method, as well as concerns about the project's alignment and other design aspects. The staff report for the December 16th meeting will contain details on possible changes to the proposed LID and design, and will be sent the week prior to the project's email list and posted to the City Council meeting webpage . An update on City Council direction from the Dec. 16th work session will be posted here.

75% Design

Keller Associates will revise the design, cost estimate and LID details based on the Dec. 16th City Council work session, and deliver the 75% design packet around January 16th. The 75% design packet will be posted here, and a link will be sent out to the email group so that property owners may again comment on the proposed design and LID boundary, cost share and assessment method.

Resolution of Intent to Create LID 2025-1

The City Council will next consider a required resolution of intent to create LID 2025-1 (tentatively on February 3, 2026), which will set a public hearing date and trigger mailed notices to all property owners in the proposed district.

LID Ordinance Hearing

To create the LID, the City Council must adopt an ordinance after a noticed public hearing (tentatively March 17th). Property owners will be able to comment on and protest:

o   The boundary of the proposed district;

o   The proposed improvements;

o   The cost estimate and percentage proposed to be paid by LID property owners;

o   The proposed method for calculating the assessment for each property (by front-foot or square-foot method or a combination thereof).

Per state statute 50-1709 , if owners of more than two-thirds (2/3) of the property to be assessed protest any of the proposed improvements which affect their property, the council shall not proceed further with the work so protested unless a majority of the members of the full council shall vote to proceed with such work.

LID Assessment Roll Hearing

After project construction, the City must mail property owners in the district a notice for a public hearing on the proposed assessment roll, at which property owners may file any objections to the correctness of their assessment, including the inclusion of a property in the district, the benefits calculated, and the proportionate share of project cost to be assessed.

Please contact Doug Self with any questions or concerns by either phone (208-354-2362, ext. 2111) or email (DSelf@DriggsIdaho.org ) regarding the project or the proposed local improvement district.