Idaho Falls council reviews sale options for four Pinecrest-adjacent parcels amid 1950s covenants

City officials updated the Idaho Falls City Council on efforts to market and potentially sell four city-owned parcels adjacent to the Pinecrest Golf Course, explaining that restrictive covenants from the 1950s limit development to single-level, single-family homes and have complicated a previous sale attempt.

The municipal services director, Pam Alexander, told the council the four parcels were donated to the city in September 2016 with an appraisal value at donation of $610,000. An appraisal done shortly after a 2022 donation showed a land value near $1.9 million; an auction held June 17, 2022 received no bids. The city later entered a purchase-and-sale agreement in September 2022 for a reported $2.0 million in cash that fell out of escrow after title work revealed the older covenants and restrictions (CC&Rs). A refreshed appraisal in November 2024 put the land value at about $1.635 million, Alexander said.

Why it matters: the CC&Rs, drafted in the 1950s, restrict building to single-story, single-family residences on the parcels in question. Builders FirstSource, which operates adjacent to the parcels, has proposed a covenant amendment that would remove the single-story restriction for the city-owned parcels in exchange for new covenant language preventing future nuisance lawsuits by purchasers of those parcels against Builders FirstSource’s existing operations. City staff told the council the exchange is intended to give the lumber-yard operator greater assurance that future buyers will not successfully sue over the mill’s current activities.

Alexander described the city’s options and the ongoing negotiation work: the city holds an exclusive commercial listing…