REXBURG, Idaho — Last week, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that Ricks College will change from a two-year junior college to a four-year university.
Since the announcement, city and county offices have been flooded with calls from real estate developers in Utah, Colorado and northern Idaho.
"It's becoming kind of a nightmare really," said City Clerk Marilyn Hansen, who has given more than 30 developers copies of the city's zoning map and explained building permit rules to them.
She said the developers are interested in areas surrounding the campus and land zoned for high-density residential buildings. The land is in demand although school and church officials have not said how many more students will attend the school when it becomes Bringham Young-Idaho.
"They want zoning maps," Hansen said. "Then they want to know who owns the land, so I send them to the assessor's office." Clerks at the county assessor's office have been busy pulling maps and searching for landowner information.
Sally Smith, a real estate agent with Century 21, said some clients raised their list prices after the news.
"I haven't seen an immediate effect on housing in Rexburg like this since the flood," said Smith, who has been a real estate agent since 1979. "This is the best thing to happen to the housing market here in a long time."