A Victor realtor, for example, confidently claimed that Victor “started” as a bedroom community for Jackson. While undeniable links and important relationships connect all three towns, people in Victor have decided now is the time to take the reins of their identity and their future. Concern that Victor’s matchless attributes are in jeopardy helped catalyze Envision Victor, a Heart & Soul Community Planning project designed to engage the entire community, identify the unique character and values of Victor, and embed those values in land use and community planning decisions, including a plan for Main Street.

Considerable forces of change do face Victor: the local economy is now driven less by agriculture and more by real estate; many people live in Victor but work someplace else; the stretch where state Highway 33 serves as Victor’s Main Street provides one of the few opportunities for cars to pass before the road narrows to two lanes; and until very recently, the pace of economic and population growth has threatened to exceed the capacity of local government. These challenges are common across the Rocky Mountain West, but here the consequences could mean that Victor dissolves into an unremarkable corridor of housing between Driggs and Jackson.

The numbers tell a story. In 2008, the Sonoran Institute reported that since 1990, the population of Teton County, Idaho had surged by 74 percent and that over one third of its labor force relies on jobs in Wyoming. In 2006, according to the Institute, Teton County was one of only three counties in Idaho where auto collisions rose rather than dropped. The Idaho Transportation Department has acknowledged that the average speed through Victor far exceeds the posted speed limit of 35 mph. And the steep increase in housing development has forced the City to consider issuing nearly $15 million in new bonding to pay for expanded facilities that would provide public sewer to new developments.  

Numbers explain only part of Victor’s story; rifts have opened up in the community between those who see growth as a genuine opportunity to capitalize their land assets and those who see such a response to growth as shortsighted. These different perceptions hint at a more complicated and charged divide in Victor. Many of its long-term residents, owners of agricultural land, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (L.D.S.), and descendants of Victor’s founders, have stuck with Victor through thick and thin. In contrast, many of Victor’s recent arrivals are young, entrepreneurial, from far away, and range from avid outdoor recreationists to professional athletes. Independent conversations with both “groups,” however, reveal shared desires for unity, balance and a thriving town with a unique rural identity. Each group, unfortunately, feels blocked or excluded by the other. If left unresolved, the divisions could become a chasm.

But maybe, like the plays performed for over 40 years by local actors in Pierre’s Playhouse on Main Street, this can end differently than it first appears. The Envision Victor participants think so; in fact, they believe it must. In a kind of character play, Victor residents from diverse backgrounds are beginning to ask each other about Victor’s attributes and their respective aspirations for their hometown. What characteristics, assets and values need to be recognized, celebrated and enhanced for Victor to regain and retain it’s well deserved standing as a unique, standout community?

This line of questioning, direct and indirect, is part of the prologue to the Foundation’s Heart & Soul Community Planning approach. The Foundation believes, and Envision Victor is willing to help demonstrate, that asking people to share and to listen to personal stories about their lives in Victor will reveal place-specific values and aspirations. The Foundation also thinks shared values and heartfelt priorities provide a better script for a town’s future than asking how much of something can be placed on a certain parcel. The traditional approach can perpetuate entrenched positions, while beginning with efforts to understand why people chose Victor over all other places, and hearing others’ stories builds relationships that can bridge divides and help shape thoughtful, far-sighted parcel-level decisions.

In upcoming acts of Envision Victor, values identified and verified by the community will be reconciled with regional trends and local data. The values can be depicted visually using specially designed software that helps show complex relationships and unintended consequences. Assuming, for example, that better traffic control and supporting and retaining locally owned businesses are priorities in Victor, what features of Main Street could “calm traffic” and encourage thriving local businesses?

Envision Victor is truly different from conventional planning because it employs innovative and creative tools to engage as many people as possible, from across the entire community, in all phases of planning-related discussions. It’s also distinct from other planning approaches because it begins by asking people what they cherish most about Victor. After many people ask and answer that kind of question, Victor may very well recognize and better understand values that have shaped the past and could influence everyone’s future.

Envision Victor calls for the same strong, hands-on community collaboration as staging entertaining theater. And right on cue, there are recent reports that the next generation of Pierre’s owners is seriously considering reopening the Playhouse. Please watch for notices of Envision Victor, Act II as the plot thickens. Learn whether Heart & Soul Community Planning prevails.