MOUNTAIN HOME, Idaho — The City of Mountain Home is looking to attract new industry by establishing an industrial park that would have a direct connection to the Union Pacific rail line, which provides a freight link between southern Idaho and large metro areas like Portland and Salt Lake City.
In a news release on Wednesday, city spokesman Mike Freeman said the Mountain Home City Council has approved the annexation of about 400 acres of land that adjoins the Mountain Home rail spur. The council also approved zoning the land for industry use.
City officials in 2019 negotiated the transfer of about 4.25 miles of unused railway formerly owned by Mountain Home Air Force Base.
Union Pacific has designated several focus sites around the nation. Mountain Home is the only site of that kind in Idaho. Freeman said the designation is billed as an assurance to businesses that the industrial park is a "premier, utility-ready, large-scale site, with Union Pacific-approved rail design and local development support."
Mountain Home economic development director Courtney Lewis said the city's "strategic location and the additional perks of the industrial park's proximity to Interstate 84 and our own municipal airport offers manufacturers and other types of industry the flexibility to do business locally, regionally, and even nationally."
Lewis and Mountain Home Mayor Rich Sykes both said that such an attractant for industry will benefit the city's residents and Idaho's economy as a whole.
Some Mountain Home residents have voiced concerns about noise and traffic from the industrial park that might impact their neighborhoods. Freeman said city officials are addressing those concerns by planning "aesthetic and noise abatement measures," along with designated routes for trucks going to and from the industrial park.
