Harris Ranch could soon add businesses, shopping & food carts. What’s the plan?
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- Boise City Council approved plans for a Harris Ranch town center and village green.
- Development plans include space for shopping, restaurants, businesses and park areas.
- Legal challenges over a special Harris Ranch tax district continue as construction nears.
Southeast Boise’s Harris Ranch has been a long-time coming. Nine days after the city first approved the development nearly two decades ago, Apple released the first iPhone. Low-rise jeans were still popular, the last Harry Potter book was about to hit bookshelves and Rihanna’s Umbrella was the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100.
Now, plans are finally inching forward for a central plaza and commercial district.
Single-family homes, condos and town houses fill the 1,300-acre master-planned community, but there’s a distinct and — at times for residents — frustrating lack of businesses in the area. The nearest grocery store is the Albertsons at Southshore Shopping Center, a roughly 45-minute walk from Boise Fire Station No. 15 on the western edge of Harris Ranch.
Aside from a few food and coffee options on either side of Harris Ranch and a smattering in Bown Crossing, there are no restaurants, dining spots or cafes for neighbors to gather.
That could soon change. The Boise City Council approved plan modifications May 13 for a central village green and town center that would include shopping, coffee shops and food spots, including possible food carts in a park area.
A lawsuit has delayed some of the development in Harris Ranch, including the park and town center. That lawsuit came after some homeowners said that a special taxing district in the area requires them to pay about 40% higher taxes than homeowners outside the district, with the Harris family’s property and some other older homes excluded from the district. The extra taxes go toward paying for public improvements like roads, parks and roundabouts.
A district judge ruled in favor of the taxing district, but homeowners brought the case to the Idaho Supreme Court and are awaiting oral arguments. As the case simmers, the developers are proceeding with their plans.
According to Gary Veasy, the president of the Barber Valley Neighborhood Association, the City Council’s May 13 approval is likely the final design entitlement before construction can begin.
Doug Fowler, the president of Barber Valley Development, previously told the Statesman that the town center and village green will be the highlight of the community. High Rhodes Investment Co., which is based in Irvine, California, is developing the town center and village green.
“(It’s) what everybody, including us, is waiting for,” Fowler said then.
The approved plans offer three possible designs, including:
A park running along Warm Springs Avenue with commercial buildings to the park’s north and a park the width of a street extending in a line northeast to Wolf Tree Street.
Commercial buildings along Warm Springs Avenue that would create a barrier between the busy road and a central park. A linear park would run through the center of the commercial district and end at Wolf Tree Street.
A large green space taking up most of the land between Warm Springs Avenue and Haystack Street, with commercial and parking spaces taking up the two blocks to its north.
Hethe Clark of Boise’s Clark Wardle law firm, which represents Barber Valley Development, said the second option with commercial buildings along Warm Springs Avenue was the most likely option.
“The idea here is to try to accommodate areas that allow you to stroll, to dine, to get together, to meet, to play and to be entertained,” Clark said during the City Council hearing. “And really, what that came down to was the idea of making a more pedestrian-friendly town center with a linear open space through the center.”
Original plans for Harris Ranch called for a similar village green and town center, but Fowler said times had changed and that “we have to be wise enough to recognize when we can make it better.”
Those early plans called for a northern Main Street that would have included restaurants, offices and shops styled after Hyde Park, and a European piazza-style town square, according to prior Statesman reporting.
That plan included a middle block with a pedestrian-only street, an outdoor dining area and food hall, according to prior Statesman reporting. The southern tip along Warm Springs Avenue would have included a community space with room for a farmer’s market or food trucks.
According to Clark, the new plans reallocate — but do not reduce — the amount of the open space, homes and commercial space previously proposed. Plans for Harris Ranch call for roughly 5 acres of open space, nearly 2,500 homes and almost 845,000 square feet of commercial space.
City Council members were eager to see the project come to fruition and heaped praise on Harris Ranch and the developers.
“I really see it as what will hopefully be a crown jewel in that neighborhood,” said Council President Pro Tem Meredith Stead. “I know the residents are eager to receive it and see it complete.”
