Growth is coming to another part of Garden City. A developer will help draft the plans
Across from Boise’s West End neighborhood and the Whitewater Park, Garden City’s waterfront has seen an array of new building in recent years, with apartments and restaurants lining the area’s riverfront property.
The Live-Work-Create District, as it’s known, is home to art studios, galleries, wineries, hotels, restaurants and apartments.
Now developers have their eyes set on an area further west, which could see restaurants, cafes, bike corridors, parks, bodegas and more in a new phase of upscale urban development.
To help would-be developers scope out the area, a panel of experts will study a portion of the city later this month to examine how future projects might best proceed.
Garden City has agreed to participate in a neighborhood land use study that a Boise developer has commissioned. The area to be examined extends from Osage Street, just north of Chinden Boulevard, to the Boise River between 40th and 48th Streets.
Much of the area consists of lower-density detached homes, including many trailers. Plans are already in place for constructing big new buildings, including two buildings with 360 apartments and commercial space and an 18-story luxury apartment building. And that’s just a start.
On Aug. 8, the Garden City Council voted to chip in $25,000 for master plan study by the Urban Land Institute, a global research organization that often produces reports on land-use topics. The institute has previously studied growth in Ada County and the Expo Idaho property.
The developer that commissioned the study, Galena Equity Partners, has multiple projects in Garden City, including the large Parkway Station development, which is a planned neighborhood between 42nd and 43rd Streets, and a planned development called Cellar 45 between 44th and 45th streets.
An outline of the study indicates that the panel would provide answers to questions about how best to provide alternate transportation to the area, how best to develop Adams Street, how much parking would be needed, how much density to aim for, how much park space to have, and how to make new buildings affordable and sustainable.
In addition to the cost of the panel, Galena President and CEO Bill Truax said at a July City Council meeting that an additional $50,000 to $100,000 would be spent on “other architectural, engineering and consulting.”
“We like when other folks are at the table as vested owners,” Truax said. “We’re leading the charge, but the hope is that we really coax out what the neighborhood and the city wants out of the overall master plan.”
Truax said Galena hopes to have the involvement of the Garden City Urban Renewal Agency, which uses taxpayer dollars to spur development deemed to be in the interest of the city. Though Galena initially wanted the agency to chip in $15,000, Truax told the Idaho Statesman on Monday that the agency is unlikely to participate, as its parcels do not cover much of the planned study area.
Two City Council members were uneasy about the city participating in a study funded by a developer with major projects underway and already built in the city. But the project was approved, 3-2, with the mayor’s tie-breaking vote.
Councilors worry about optics of developer study
While city councilors discussed the need for purposeful development in the rapidly growing city along the Boise River, some expressed concern about how it would look for the city to participate in a study commissioned by a developer that is only for a select area of the city.
“I find it really challenging for the city to work to agree with a specific developer,” said Teresa Jorgensen at a follow-up discussion on July 26, adding that it would create a precedent.
She said she “would like to see this come back to the council with a consortium of developers.”
Council President James Page expressed a similar concern, arguing that he had “concern about a parity problem.”
Page also noted that Truax had said the study would go forward with or without the city’s participation.
“If we get the benefit without paying for it, why would we pay for it?” he said.
Urban renewal leader calls study ‘premature’
The chair of the Garden City Urban Renewal Agency, Jeffrey Souza, said the agency has no plans to participate in the proposed study, because only a small portion of its territory is within the planned study area, and because the agency has already committed nearly all of its anticipated revenue over the next two years to projects that are “very visible or provide immediate impact to residents.”
“My own personal view of the study is that it is very premature,” Souza told the Statesman in an email, noting that there are many property owners in the area other than Galena.
“I am not a big fan of these studies myself,” he added. “How many millions (yes, millions) of dollars have been spent studying the State Street corridor with zero measurable impacts or improvements to show for it? How much has been spent studying the Fairgrounds? Any changes there?”
For years, urban planners have studied how to make State Street, a major east-west transit corridor, into a denser neighborhood with robust public transit options and bike routes. Studies of how to re-develop the Expo Idaho grounds have also gone ahead in recent years, and the Ada County Commission is awaiting proposals from design firm finalists as they initiate a staged development process.
Souza also called Galena’s approach to the project “incredibly odd.” Souza said Galena “seem to want” the agency’s participation in the study, and has said so to city staff members, council members, other agencies, the media, and in emails to the agency’s administrator. But Galena has never asked him, he said.
“They have my phone number,” he said.
Mayor says plan is chance otherwise ‘likely not … available to us’
Two city counselors, Bill Jacobs and Russ Heller, voted for the city’s participation.
Jacobs said the city may not have the resources to embark on a master plan on its own, and that “this gives us a vehicle to get there” which could be used for future city examinations of other neighborhoods.
Mayor John Evans also voted in favor, casting the tie-breaking vote.
“It’s an opportunity to get some planning advice from some highly qualified folks around the country that would likely not be available to us otherwise,” he told the Statesman.
Evans also noted that even if the city agreed to participate in the study, there would be no obligation for the city to decide on land use outcomes that are beneficial to Galena.
“The developer isn’t going to control what the city authorizes to be built down there, and the developer isn’t in control of what master plan might be adopted by the city,” Evans said.
Evans also said the Urban Land Institute operates independently, and therefore shouldn’t be swayed by what any particular developer wants.
Evans said the panel’s report could be used by the city to develop a master plan. A master plan is a planning document that guides future development in an area. Garden City has a comprehensive plan that explains how it would like to see development in the future, but it does not have area-specific master plans, and having them can be useful for development, Evans said.
“Master plans are a good thing. You create expectations,” he said. “It’s a public process so that you can get feedback … from those that are going to be most affected by it. I’m a fan of the process. It’s very expensive to do, and that’s why this partnership I think is in the best interest of the city.”
Evans and Truax said examining what parking requirements would be best for redevelopment is a key focus of the panel.
On Aug. 8, an action item allowing the mayor to enter into an agreement with Galena over the Urban Land Institute study passed, with Jacobs, Heller and the mayor voting in favor, and Page and Jorgensen voting against.
Developer says study will help overcome building hurdles
Truax said redeveloping Garden City with the current city code is difficult, as much of it was written a half-century ago and has a suburban focus.
“When you come back and you try to redevelop property, it’s very, very difficult, because they just don’t work for current standards,” he said.
Developers need to have more specific guidance about what the city wants, he said, as well as long-term planning.
“There isn’t a uniform or guiding framework for people to interpret how to develop property down there,” he said.
For instance, large developments are sometimes expected to upgrade a sidewalk, gutter, road, and water and sewer system in front of a new building, Truax said. In other places, developers of smaller buildings could chip in money to a pot for the future.
“If you look at development throughout the valley, developers and capital are going to move into developments that are predictable,” he said. “So if they can define when they get in, how much it’s going to cost them, and when they get out, they’re way more likely to move forward as a development than the ones that have huge entitlement risks or unpredictability or uncertainty of development.”
In response to the council members’ uneasiness, Truax said Galena wants to promote “good development,” and that he’d be happy if another developer is able to use more specific guidelines created by this process to make other buildings in the neighborhood.
The panel’s participants will include planners with specialization in traffic management, market analysis, economic development, urban design and landscape architecture, according to a list obtained by the Statesman.
Galena has reached out to over 50 Treasure Valley developers, businesses and landowners in the area asking for their participation, which Truax said will help the panelists get input from people who have experience with the area’s problems.
The study is planned to be conducted the week of Aug. 21, with the panel presenting initial findings to stakeholders at the end of the week. A final report will be written over the next couple of months, Truax said.
