New park, improved bike and walking path are coming to downtown Boise’s Grove Street
Upgrades are coming to Boise’s Grove Street, including a new public park in a historic part of downtown and a pathway for pedestrians and bicyclists between 3rd Street and Broadway Avenue.
1. From parking lot to park
In the heart of downtown, across the street from Boise’s historic Basque Block, a new multicultural public space is coming. The city’s urban renewal agency greenlit a Boise landscape architectural firm, Jensen Belts Associates, on Aug. 14 to move forward with design and development of the site at 521 W. Grove St.
The parking lot that is there now would be replaced with a park that could be used for hosting events and would offer open spaces, shade and tree canopies along with a low wall to sit on.
The site would allow people to appreciate the outdoors and gather for events and festivals at the Basque Block next door, according to the website for Capital City Development Corp., the city’s urban renewal agency. It would offer an opportunity to learn and interact with the history of the area.
The street is one of the oldest in Boise and was the southern edge of town when the first 10 blocks were platted in 1863, according to a letter from the Boise City Department of Arts & History.
The site was the home and boardinghouse of Antonio Letemendi, a Basque immigrant, for about 40 years in the early and mid-1900s before it was demolished to make room for a shopping mall that was never built, according to the letter.
The space would “celebrate the historic culture of the area, focus on the shared public environment ... and provide a venue for community events,” according to a letter from Jensen Belts Associates.
Cliff Garten Studio, a Venice, California, studio named after its founder, was selected to design public art for the space. Garten’s sculptures have appeared across the country including in Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia and internationally in Qatar and Canada.
“Specializing in sculpture, his work interprets the historic, architectural and environmental characteristics of a place to create iconic, striking and integrated structures,” according to the Capital City Development Corp., or CCDC, website.
CCDC is leading the development of the space with Boise Parks Department, which would take ownership when it’s completed around June 2025. The project is estimated to cost about $3.33 million.
2. A path linking the East End to downtown
Boise’s quest to improve biking and pedestrian safety will also be coming to Grove Street, making it easier for those living in East Boise to reach downtown.
The urban renewal agency’s board approved preparation of a final design for a multi-use pathway connecting Grove Street to Broadway Avenue. The path will connect to a recently installed pedestrian crossing at Dona Larsen Park.
To get from Grove and 3rd streets to Broadway Avenue and Dona Larsen Park, walkers and cyclists today have two options: go half a mile around the Ada County Courthouse and University of Idaho Boise via Front Street, or head half a mile down Main Street.
The new pathway would follow the Boise Canal and cut behind the courthouse before weaving around a parking structure for St. Luke’s Health System.
According to Kelly Burrows, a project manager for the agency, the original plan was to have the pathway go south of the parking structure, but Ada County denied that request, forcing planners to route the path with tighter turns.
CCDC found during outreach for a 2021 development report that neighbors were eager for a pathway. So the agency went to work creating what it calls a “safe, convenient, low-stress bike and pedestrian alternative to travel on Front Street and on Main Street, connecting downtown to the East End Neighborhood.”
The board awarded The Land Group Inc., an Eagle civil engineering and architecture firm, a $115,125 contract to prepare a final design and to handle project permitting, preparation of final bid documents, assistance during bidding and construction administration.
The agency expects the design to be finished in September 2024. Construction is expected to finish in early 2025.
