ACHD warns of traffic jams. Analysts say city will lose money. Boise OKs 3,500 homes anyway
After over three years of back-and-forth discussions, the Boise City Council approved one of the city’s largest housing developments ever despite strong opposition from city staff and the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission.
The Murio Farms development would bring over 3,500 homes and almost 95,000 square feet of commercial space to Southwest Boise over the next 20 years. It would spread across nearly 381 acres of farmland owned by the Murgoitio family south of Lake Hazel Road and between South Cole and South Maple Grove roads, just east of CBH Homes’ growing Locale subdivision and southwest of the Boise Airport.
The development would have over 1,800 single-family homes and over 1,700 apartments, according to a summary from Boise’s Planning and Development Services Department.
The City Council approved the annexation of unincorporated county land for the development in a 4-2 vote Nov. 12, with Council Members Jimmy Hallyburton and Meredith Stead dissenting.
The planned development is what the city of Boise was looking for when it launched its new zoning code in December. It has density; it has a mix of homes and businesses; it has affordable housing.
“Conceptually, this is exactly what we want in our community,” said Mayor Lauren McLean during a May hearing on the development.
But there’s a problem: It could cost the city over $20 million in the next 30 years.
“We cannot get the revenues to cover the costs, particularly the long-term operation costs,” said Mike Sherack, senior budget analyst for the city of Boise, during the Nov. 12 hearing.
According to Sherack, the operating losses could total about $2 million per year.
“There are several reasons the planning team cannot support the project, which includes traffic impacts (and) lack of city services,” said City Planner David Moser. “But the main concern, and has always been, is that the annexation is not financially feasible.”
But Council Member Luci Willits said that if Boise didn’t approve the development, the developers could go through the county application process, meaning the city would still feel the development’s impact but wouldn’t collect fees to help offset it.
The council approved the annexation with a long list of conditions that members hoped would make the development break even.
“I wish there were less risk associated with bringing this on,” said Council President Colin Nash, who proposed the approval with conditions. “I can’t mitigate all that risk ongoing, but I can give us the best shot to absorb that risk over a 30-year period.”
Willits said, “I think this can pencil if we want it to pencil.”
Concerns over money, safety and transportation in Southwest Boise
The Murgoitios, a Basque-American family with deep ties to the Boise area, have long planned the Murio Farms development to replace their dairy and farming land.
When it was first proposed in 2021, it seemed as though the development would pencil out. But as interest rates, construction costs and inflation swelled throughout 2022 and 2023, the expected development cost skyrocketed.
Sherack said the math got harder when the Legislature cut 10% off property taxes, lowering the amount the city could use for needed services like police or fire.
“Long-term operating costs, a lot of police and fire costs, that’s what we cannot cover,” Sherack said. “Annexation is harder to justify financially.”
The Ada County Highway District wrote, in a transportation impact study, that the roads out of the area also could not support an additional 3,500 homes.
“ACHD considers these improvements to be infeasible due to the scale of the proposed improvements and their impact on the community,” according to the study. “If Murio Farms … is approved with the current land uses, there will be significant traffic congestion that will not be mitigated.”
Mark Niemeyer, the Boise fire chief, said the development would also add to the burden of Fire Station 17, the nearest station, on Cole Road near Frank Church High School.
“That station is already feeling the pressure,” Niemeyer said.
Niemeyer said the Whitney Fire District has planned a new station to the west of Murio Farms on Lake Hazel Road between Maple Grove and Five Mile roads, but there isn’t enough funding yet to hire enough firefighters to fully staff it.
“To build a station is one thing,” Niemeyer said. “To staff the station is something completely different.”
The Whitney Fire District covers a large chunk of Southwest Boise, bordered on the north by Victory Road and on the west by Cloverdale Road. The southern border stretches, loosely, along the New York Canal and covers pieces of land south of it including the World Center for Birds of Prey and homes just south of Hubbard Lane, near Falcon Crest Golf Club.
It would take some time, he said, to build up enough revenue to staff that location.
Why did Boise approve a plan that could cost taxpayers?
The council majority said Murio Farms would bring something Boise desperately needs: housing.
The Boise metro area is creeping ever closer to 1 million residents, nearly half of the statewide population, and the city and region have struggled to keep up with the growth.
According to a 2021 city-commissioned study, the city needs to build over 2,700 new homes every year and nearly 28,000 new homes by 2030.
Three-quarters of the need is for homes that are affordable to those earning 80% or less of the area median income, according to the study. In 2024, 80% of the area median income was $54,900 for a one-person household, $62,750 for two people, $70,600 for three and $78,400 for four.
The 3,500 homes in Murio Farms, council members argued, could aid in plugging that gap rather than forcing residents out to other cities like Nampa or Caldwell and commuting into Boise for work.
“If we in Boise don’t grant these kinds of housing options to folks in Boise, then the city will become complicit in driving folks out of Boise,” Willits said. “The congestion level will worsen.”
Murio Farms would also provide much-needed housing near the $15 billion Micron expansion, Amazon and WinCo distribution centers and the incoming 520-acre Pleasant Valley industrial park from Adler Industrial and Ahlquist Development. Micron has said its expansion could create 17,000 jobs.
Adding SW Boise fire station, school, affordable housing requirements
The council’s catalog of conditions took Nash over six minutes to list. They include:
- The developers would make a mitigation payment of $4.5 million in addition to standard development impact fees.
- The developers would pay $2 million toward ACHD’s proposed Orchard Street realignment project.
- The developers could not receive building permits after they’ve built their 556th home or they finish the fourth phase of construction until construction begins on a new fire station. The developers would work with the city of Boise to fund capital and operating expenses for the fire station.
- The developers would provide a minimum seven-acre site for a public school in Murio Farms.
- The developers would provide a minimum of 3% of its units as affordable housing for 50 years, beginning at 500 homes and measured every 500 homes.
- The developers would work with Valley Regional Transit to develop a transportation plan before the first phase of development.
“This is our best shot at trying to make this work,” Nash said.
Council Member Jimmy Hallyburton said he couldn’t support the motion because staff had told council members over and over that the development didn’t make financial sense and because ACHD had given them warnings.
“If our staff is right, what are we giving up?” Hallyburton said. “What are we going to have to say no to in the future if we’re taking a $2 million loss year after year after year?”
Hallyburton said it was an easy decision, because he trusted the city staff’s analysis.
This story was originally published November 20, 2024 at 4:00 AM.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misinterpreted Boise Fire Chief Mark Niemeyer’s statement about staffing a Whitney Fire District station. That passage has been corrected.
