It started as a church. After closing, people used it to do meth. Now, a new purpose
As a church it began, and to a church it can return.
The Boise City Council voted Tuesday to affirm that the Treasure Valley Institute for Children’s Arts was able to use its space — a 113-year-old church building at the corner of Eastman and 14th streets in Boise’s North End — for private events and church services, despite concerns from neighbors about parking, safety and noise.
Those were many of the same concerns neighbors brought to Boise’s Planning and Zoning commission two months ago after Jon Swarthout, the founder and CEO of TRICA, applied to modify the building’s conditional use permit to allow for more events.
The building was built in 1907 as the Immanuel Methodist Episcopal Church, which hosted services for many decades before eventually closing. The building fell into disrepair until Swarthout bought it and renovated it, during which inspectors found evidence of methamphetamine and lead paint.
In the time since, the space has been cleaned up and used to host students in classes on dance, music and art. Under the modified conditional use permit, TRICA would continue to host those classes. But it would also be permitted to host church services each Sunday and up to 20 large private events, including weddings or parties, each year.
The Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously to approve the permit with several conditions, including a limit on times of day activities were allowed to occur and how many people may be present.
To help cut down on concerns about parking, there was also a condition on how some special events must get a parking agreement with an off-site source to be approved.
The permit granted TRICA one year to carry out the conditions and meet with neighbors, the city planning staff, the church and other stakeholders to see if the other uses would be feasible in the long term.
But neighbors, still worried about the effects of parking and increased traffic, appealed the decision to the City Council.
Those who testified Tuesday were split between the benefits of the project — some loved that the building had been restored to something usable in the community, while others supported TRICA’s mission — and those who opposed what the new allowances could mean for the area.
Heather Harper, who lives near the project, called the project a “gift for our community to enjoy.”
Her neighbors, however, didn’t all agree.
“We do not oppose children’s art or a church,” Carlos Coto, who lives nearby, told the council. “We oppose a concert hall.”
Sarah Marang, who lives near the building, talked about how she had struggled to get her children enrolled in TRICA programming and argued that the North End wasn’t the right place for the nonprofit.
“The North End is not a neighborhood where we have a lot of, for lack of a better word, needy children,” Marang said. “This neighborhood, most of the kids can afford extracurricular activities. It has to be in this neighborhood, where it’s hurting the residential, to help kids? I don’t feel like those two add up.”
In their decision, council members said the implication that the building would become a major event venue was incorrect.
Council Member Patrick Bageant said the Planning and Zoning Commission did not make any error in its decision — a requirement for the council to overturn a commission decision — because the constraints it put in place were malleable.
Council President Elaine Clegg agreed, adding that while she was sympathetic to the idea that parking may be disrupted, she thought it was valuable that the North End was more than just single-family homes.
Council Member Lisa Sánchez responded to Marang’s testimony that the North End did not need nonprofit programs in the area with her own experiences visiting other neighborhoods growing up and being exposed to different ideas.
“Let’s have members of our community from the other parts of the Treasure Valley coming to the North End to enjoy Jon’s program,” Sánchez said.
Ultimately, the council voted to deny the appeal, upholding the Planning and Zoning Commission’s decision. It is not clear when new programming may begin at the TRICA building.
This story was originally published October 13, 2020 at 11:32 PM.
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