Apartments next to Capitol. Houses in a megadevelopment. Blue people. Coming near you
The latest proposed developments, housing and other construction projects, and new businesses around Idaho’s Treasure Valley:
Boise
Micron’s Boise campus is expanding significantly, as part of a multibillion-dollar investment in the Treasure Valley.
On Tuesday, Jan. 11, the Boise City Council planned to allow Micron to use nearly 400 acres of land in Southeast Boise to build a new semiconductor plant.
Ever since the microchip giant announced a $15 billion investment in Boise to boost domestic memory chip manufacturing in September, the city has been fast-tracking the permits required to build the project.
Micron builds memory chips, which are essential to advanced electronics like smartphones and computers.
On Tuesday, Jan. 10, the council approved the annexation of 358 acres and the rezoning of 32 acres. Both areas would be zoned for heavy industrial use.
Micron’s Boise investment is expected to create more than 17,000 jobs.
The company, which was founded in the basement of a Boise dentistry office, is now one of the biggest semiconductor manufacturers in the world.
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Drivers and pedestrians on Front Street may notice a new work of art on the side of a six-story parking garage adjoining the Home2Suites by Hilton Boise Downtown, which opened in 2020 at 502 W. Front.
Titled The Pale Blue Dot, the sculpture was created by John Yarnell of Boise’s Studio Capacitor, the artistic arm of Trademark Design and Fabrication. It shows six iridescent blue aluminum human figures in a watering hole and six more creeping or crawling toward it.
Yarnell said title is drawn from the late astronomer Carl Sagan’s description of a photo of Earth taken in 1990 by the Voyager 1 spacecraft. The artwork itself, he said, is drawn “from the metaphor of the universal watering hole, the elemental gathering place for life immemorial, the one place where an instinctive truce is drawn in the name of the greater good and survival.”
The the Capital City Development Corp., Boise’s urban renewal agency, contributed $157,500 for the artwork.
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A 6-story building with basement level parking, first floor retail, second floor commercial office space and three floors of apartments or condos in downtown Boise received approval to go forward on Tuesday, Jan. 10.
The parcel is on half an acre at 800 W. State St. where former bank sits in a distinctive biulding. It is on the northwest corner of West State Street and North 8th Street, kitty cornered from the Idaho Capitol.
Multiple council members said they like the architecture of the building but would be glad to see it get developed.
“Every time I drive by it I’m like, ‘Oh, somebody will do something cool with that building someday,’” Council President Holli Woodings said. “And it’s just never happened, and it’s not going to happen because old bank buildings are really hard to beneficially reuse. They have awkward layouts. It’s not the best use of this space.”
The council voted to approve a rezone to allow the project to go forward. A specific design for the building would be addressed at future hearings.
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A major housing development on the Boise Bench has received the go-ahead from the City Council, allowing the conversion of a large tract of agricultural land south of Victory Road to become multifamily housing.
The project at 2521 W. Victory Road would include nearly 360 apartments in multiple three-story buildings. The development would be called Seasons on the Bench.
At a public hearing in November, the council moved to defer a decision on the project until this month after they heard significant pedestrian safety and traffic concerns from neighbors. Council members also expressed frustration about not knowing what road improvements from the Ada County Highway District might be coming nearby.
After city staff members and the developer met with highway district staff members, ACHD agreed to add a traffic light at a nearby intersection, install a raised crosswalk in front of it along Victory Road, and take other traffic-mitigation measures. The developer would build an off-street multi-use path for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Council members also discussed ways to improve signage directing bicyclists north from Victory Road to Malad Street, which is the preferred route for bikes.
Right next door, another developer plans to build 800 apartments in several more large buildings. That development is scheduled to come before the council in February.
On Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 10, the city’s planning director, Tim Keane, told the council that the city would soon be deciding on which road improvement projects it wants to ask the highway district to prioritize over the next few years.
“The two developments that will be happening adjacent to one another on Victory I would argue are the best-designed of anything in the suburbs of Boise,” he told the council later.
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Thirty town houses could be built along 2801 W. Palouse St., in the Vista neighborhood.
The development drew some opposition, with neighbors complaining about the size of the homes and the lack of a pedestrian connection they would have to Lemhi Street to the south.
At a previous hearing, City Council members had asked for the developer to explore a connection to Lemhi Street. The developer, Steve Martinez, told the council on Tuesday, Jan. 10, that neighbors on Lemhi had been opposed to a connection.
As a condition of approving the homes, the council included a requirement that a pedestrian connection to Lemhi be explored if another opportunity arises on an adjoining property, and that there be a pedestrian connection leading from one of the development’s southern buildings to Palouse Street.
“The expectation that single-family, single-story homes are built with these kind of land prices is just not realistic,” Council President Holli Woodings said, noting her support for more affordable homes before voting for the approval.
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Ryan McColly of Glancey Rockwell & Associates has filed a request for a permit for the design of the Jackson Jet Hangar, a “39,000-square-foot of planned aircraft hangar located at Boise Airport between old FAA office building and Firehawk helicopter facility,” according to the application.
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Shapes Fitness for Women, a franchise gym, leased 9,900 square feet of retail space in Family Center at Federal Way, 3668 Federal Way, TOK Commercial reported.
Eagle
A proposed subdivision with 189 houses is sizable, but it would be only one small piece of the giant Spring Valley planned community whose development is now beginning east of State Highway 16 in Eagle’s Foothills.
Orem, Utah, developer GWC Capital, Spring Valley’s developer, is proposing the 189 homes near an intersection that doesn’t yet exist, where Big Gulch Parkway would join a planned northern extension of Linder Road. The houses would be built about 1 mile north of Linder’s intersection with Beacon Light Road.
The site is named (for now at least) the Valnova Lot 17 Subdivision, and the 189 homes would eventually be joined by nearly 7,000 more at the community planned just east of State Highway 16 and north of Equest Lane.
The City Council years ago approved the overall development of Spring Valley, and in 2022 the council approved a more detailed plan for the first part of it: 2,200 homes on more than 1½ square miles of the 9½-square-mile (6,000-acre) development. After that, the developer must submit even more detailed plans, called preliminary plats, to subdivide smaller parcels into new residential lots on mostly new streets. The 189 housing lots make up one of those plats.
The Eagle Planning and Zoning Commission approved the plat on a 4-1 vote, sending the proposal to the City Council for a final decision.
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Gemshore Eagle RE LLC, a San Rafael, California, development company, has advanced a step in its proposal to build 70 single-family houses on the south side of West Floating Feather Road, 500 feet west of the intersection of North Cove Colony Way and West Floating Feather Road.
The Carp Ranch Subdivision would be on 36 acres. Numerous people testified about the proposal, expressing concerns about traffic and other issues, at an August meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission. Now the City Council plans to hear from the public at a hearing scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 24, at Eagle City Hall.
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The Eagle Fire Protection District wants to build Fire Station No. 2 on 4.4 acres at 12655 N. Horseshoe Bend Road, about 500 feet south of Beacon Light Road.
The Eagle City Council has scheduled a public hearing at 6 pm. Tuesday, Jan. 24, at Eagle City Hall.
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Nampa
Two developers, Mark Bottles with TV Holdings LLC and Riley Verner, with Zion Ventures LLC, both from Eagle, want to build 264 apartments and one commercial building on Middleton Road.
The development, called Northwest Village, would be located on 4.7 acres at 2522 and 2508 N. Middleton Road. The apartments would occupy 11 buildings.
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According to the application, the apartments would include 80 one-bedroom units, 158 two-bedrooms and 26 three-bedrooms.
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The city of Nampa wants to improve Lakeview Park and the Ridgecrest Golf Club and Centennial Golf Course.
In a news release, the city said it plans to improve the golf courses and the park but wants the public to speak up about any concerns and desired improvements.
Open houses are scheduled from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. for Tuesday, Jan. 24, at Centennial Golf Course; and 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. the same day at Ridgecrest Golf Course.
Open houses are also scheduled for from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 25, at the Harward Recreation Center, and from 5 to 7 p.m. at the same location.
People with questions were invited to call the Parks and Recreation office at 208-468-5858.
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Meridian
Kendall Development Group, a car dealer, seeks to construct a 102,827-square-foot vehicle service center on 19.3 acres off Overland Road.
The business plans to include tire and suspension repairs, parts storage and auto detailing among other vehicle maintenance services at the location at 1690 W Overland Road, according to BuildZoom.
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Notable: Rents, water bills
Boise rents decreased 1.1% in December, though the median rent was still 5.1% higher than in December 2021, a national listing service said.
Apartment List said median rents in Boise are up by 36.7% since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
Median rents in Boise are $1,120 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,322 for a two-bedroom.
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Some Boise-area residents may have noticed higher than normal water bills from Veolia in the past month or so.
The reason? A misread on some of Veolia’s water meters in October, though the company says only a small number of customers were affected.
The Idaho Public Utilities Commission has handled five complaints since Dec. 14 that were related to the high bills, said Stephen Goodson, spokesperson for the commission. . One turned out to be a leak, one a customer mistake, and three were meter misreads.
Veolia said it notified all of the customers who were affected. Veolia bills are generated every two months, so customers may notice the higher bills in the coming weeks.
Madeline Wyatt, spokesperson for Veolia, said customers can call or email the local service team at 208-362-7304 or csid@veolia.com. To look up your bill and usage history, Veolia needs the name listed on the account and the service address, she said.
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Business reporter Angela Palermo contributed.
This story was originally published January 12, 2023 at 4:00 AM.
