‘No one expected this’: City of Star growth outpaces expectation
Donna Rhoten gets emotional when she drives through Star, her hometown that 30 years ago had a population under 1,000.
Today, the farm and ranch lands that Rhoten remembers from her childhood are subdivisions. Instead of cattle, she sees houses.
“When I drive places with all of these houses, it makes me sad,” Rhoten said. “I miss what it was, and it is never going to be the same.”
Star’s population has more than doubled since 2011, according to the Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho, from 5,900 to 13,400. New subdivisions are going up all over town.
In a recent meeting, the City Council heard four developers’ proposals for more than 600 homes. By Sept. 30, the end of fiscal year 2021, Star Mayor Trevor Chadwick said the city will likely have approved around 800 building permits.
“We typically have 275,” he said in an interview with the Idaho Statesman.
Chadwick bought his house in 1999, when Star’s population was under 2,000, and his house cost $117,000.
As housing prices skyrocket, developers are quickly buying land in the Boise suburb. Last month, the average price for a single-family home in Star was nearly $600,000, according to the Intermountain Multiple Listing Service.
One Star resident recently put his home on the market and, according to The Washington Post, the online listing had 238 views in an hour and 1,000 by the end of an afternoon. The house sold within four days, for $28,000 over the listing price of $485,000. The house sold for over twice what the owner paid, the Post reported.
Some of the offers came from investors.
“No one expected this,” Chadwick said. “I knew we were going to have growth, but not at the pace that we are having it now.”
Rhoten is a child care provider in Star. She remembers a few years ago when it took her weeks to fill openings for her day care service at her home. Now, she said she has spots filled before they are open.
People move to Star for political reasons
Chadwick attributes a lot of the city’s recent growth to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We saw what the pandemic did — it got people to move out of other areas …,” Chadwick said. “I meet with people all of the time and they are flocking here for political reasons, because they don’t like what their governments are doing.”
Last year, Star adopted a resolution to become a “Second Amendment Sanctuary City,” meaning the City Council would not enforce “unconstitutional” gun laws.
“People told me they moved here for that,” Chadwick said.
‘It is changing our way of life’
Star formerly was made up of agricultural land and only became a city in 1997. Chadwick said he has seen many longtime, generational farmers sell their land to developers.
“If a farmer is being offered stupid money, we’re talking $200,000 to $300,000 an acre, who are we to tell them they are not allowed to take that money for their property, when they spent many years and some generations, farming and are left without anyone to take over for them?” Chadwick said.
Matthew Vraspir, chair of the Parks, Art & Beautification Committee for Star and a City Council candidate, grew up in Star and said he spent his childhood playing in fields that are now subdivisions.
“There is a lot of heartbreak of having farms disappear,” Vraspir said. “But when people want to sell their land, there is nothing you can do or say to stop it.“
Rhoten said the way of life in Star is different now.
“I had a day care family recently complaining that we have to drive so far to get stuff like groceries,” Rhoten said. “But I wanted to respond, ‘No, we like having to drive 15-20 minutes to get stuff. We like that — that is our way of life.’ ”
Planning for growth
Star is positioned between Middleton, Boise, Nampa and Meridian, making growth inevitable, Chadwick said.
With growth comes the need for planning, Chadwick said. The city updated its comprehensive plan last December, adding zoning changes and density regulations for residential development.
Chadwick also said he is setting up meetings with all of the city’s taxing districts — like Star Sewer and Water, the Ada County Highway District, the West Ada School District and Star Fire — to make sure the city has the resources to keep up with growth.
“Cities are designed to develop and create urban areas,” Chadwick said. “That is the function the state has determined for cities. This is where we are planning our area. It is our job to make sure the developments fit in with our plans.”
City Councilman Michael Keyes agrees. He said he is “agnostic” toward growth as long as it is well planned.
“In Star we were under-planned and had a terrible set of ordinances and no urgency to fix it,” Keyes said. “When you become a city, nobody gives you any training.”
Keyes, who was elected in 2018, said he “came into office with the sole goal of getting planning in place.”
The planning includes the new comprehensive plan and development code.
Chadwick said Star Sewer and Water is able to keep up with the influx of homes and is undergoing a $30 million upgrade to its system.
He worries about the school district, though, because Star students are bused across Ada and Canyon counties for high school. Depending on where they live, students in Star may attend schools in Meridian, Eagle or Middleton.
Chadwick hopes a new high school will be part of Star’s growth soon.
“People who have been here are accepting of growth,” Keyes said. “The ones that seem most opposed to growth have been here the shortest time.”
Rhoten said as much as she misses the farmland, she has resorted to “just going with it.”
This story was originally published July 27, 2021 at 4:00 AM with the headline "‘No one expected this’: City of Star growth outpaces expectation."
