Envision Victor

As I hope you know by now, Victor was awarded one of four Orton Family Foundation's Heart and Soul grants. The award includes $100,000 plus technical and professional assistance from the Foundation. This is a tremendous opportunity for our citizens to build on the great work that has been done in Victor in the past such as the Community Action Plan (2003), Victor Comprehensive Plan (2006), EPA Smart Growth Technical Assistance Grant (2006). The City of Victor has two primary partners in this project: Valley Advocates for Responsible Development (VARD) and Teton Valey Trails and Pathways (TVTAP).

We have named the project Envision Victor and it will span at least the next two years. Envision Victor will ask citizens of Victor to articulate the heart and soul of Victor. Those stories, places, and values will be used to to shape how our town grows and will contribute specifically, to finalizing design work for our downtown core

One of the first steps in the project is to form a local citizen advisory committee to steer the project. To begin with, the committee will consist of 8 members; two from each of the three partner organizations and two members from the public at large. This committee will begin their work by developing criteria for hiring a part time project coordinator who will be responsible for organizing and managing the project on a day to day basis. All the Envision Victor committee meetings associated with this project will be open the public.

Goals for Envision Victor include:

- Engage as many residents as possible in Envision Victor, both long-time residents and more recent arrivals.

- Identify and articulate the Heart & Soul attributes of Victor: those values, qualities, events, and places that reflect Victor’s truly unique identity.

- Build Heart & Soul elements into land use decisions or policies such as a downtown plan, a transportation plan, design guidelines, or ordinances.

- Use new tools, high-tech and conventional, to identify and visualize alternative scenarios that assist with land-use decisions.

- Create a series of Sub-Committees to steer individual aspects of the project.

- Integrate the Transportation Plan and the downtown Victor Plan.

- Adopt design review guidelines and standards for downtown Victor.

- Identify new public/private partnerships that could contribute to downtown growth and resilience.


As part of the Envision Victor project, and related to the Heart & Soul Community Planning award, Victor has engaged Landsman Transportation Planning, LLC, of Portland, Oregon. Landsman will work closely with the Victor Transportation Advisory Committee comprised of Victor citizens and area stakeholders, such as START, the area mass transit service, and develop a comprehensive transportation plan. The transportation plan, an integral part of Envision Victor, will focus on the following elements:

- Street Connectivity: Devise new ways to connect and expand Victor's network of streets.

- Speeding on Main Street and other streets: work with ITD to reconcile local needs and desires with State Transportation requirements and regulations.


- Main Street and Center Street: design guidelines including intersection treatment.


- Parking: Develop and implement safe and creative public parking strategies in the downtown core.

Envision Victor and the transportation plan, are two important projects designed to strengthen Victor’s unique sense of place as it faces growth and change. The success of both efforts will depend on citizen participation. Victor’s citizens are best qualified to identify the qualities that make this town special and I encourage you to participate. More information about both efforts will be available in the next several weeks. If you have questions in the meantime, please me at scott@victorcityidaho.com.

Our next Advisory Committee Meeting will be held on October 21st at 8:30am in City Hall.

Moose Cross a Huge Success! 2 More Races scheduled for Oct 4th and 18th

Chellie Terry Strikes a pose on the announcers platform.


Troy Barry owns the run up.

On Saturday Sept 20th, 2008 Victor, ID changed. No longer a sleepy town in the shadows of Driggs to the North and Jackson to the East, it became a destination cycling town! If you haven't looked around lately you may have missed the fact that CycloCross racing is sweeping the country from Gloucester, MA to Seattle, WA. This is a style of bike racing that appeals to hard core racers, weekend warriors, and casual cyclists alike. Train all year for 'Cross glory or jump off the couch and give it a shot for the fun of it. And that's exactly what 80+ racers did last Saturday.

Yes, my moment of glory! Hole Shot on turn one, trying to run from the Chicken!

As one of the race orgainizers I was overwhelmed by the success of this event. We had racers from Salt Lake, Boise, Ketchum, Missoula, Bozeman, Boston, and of course Driggs, Victor, and Jackson. Hundreds of spectators lined the course waving cowbells, and the talk all day was how everyone couldn't wait to come back and race again, "even if gas was 17 dollars a gallon next year, I would make a point to get back to Moose Cross" - The Reverend - Church of the Big Ring. Read his entire blog here.

One of the best races of the day was the under 12 year old kids race. Over a dozen little rippers tore around a condensed MooseCross course complete with chicanes, barriers, and woop dees. I can't explain the stoke these kids had to be racing their bikes. Truly awesome!

Coming down the homestretch


Every kid received a commemorative Cowbell


The Chicken holds off an attack on the buff pavement.

Check out full results and info about the next 2 races HERE.