2,000+ people would live there. Neighbors resisted. What Boise’s City Council just decided
Town homes. Houses. Apartments. Coming soon to a field near you.
An 893-unit planned community along Victory Road received approval from the Boise City Council over the objection of neighbors who didn’t like that some construction would receive an exception to the city’s height limit and who were worried about traffic.
Located at 2017 W. Victory Road, the development, named Vista Point, is along a half-mile stretch of land bordered by the New York Canal to the south and Victory Road to the north.
The area will gain thousands of new residents in the coming years. At Boise’s average household size of 2.37 people, Vista Point would house more than 2,100 of them. To the west, a recently approved development called Seasons on the Bench would have close to 360 apartments. Until recently, its acreage was a farm.
Develpped by Welltower Inc., of Ohio, Vista Point, would include 616 apartments, 142 town homes and 134 single-family houses on 44 acres. It also has space for 2,000 square feet of commercial space and 6,000 square feet of “flex” space, which could be used for commercial, office or coworking, Deborah Nelson, a lawyer for the developer, told the council Tuesday.
Three apartment buildings would have three to five stories each.
The property would also have nine acres of public green space. The site borders an unpaved access road along the New York Canal.
A number of roads within Vista Point would be public, while others would be privately maintained.
As part of a development agreement tied to the project, 25 apartments will rent at no more than the area’s median income, which in Boise is $70,026 for a two-person household.
Dave Kangas, a board member of the Vista Neighborhood Association, raised concerns at the meeting about traffic mitigation and whether there was enough on-site parking. To the west are two railroad crossings without sidewalks or other pedestrian amenities.
Over the last several months, city leaders have discussed ways to improve the road infrastructure along Victory Road, which is now two lanes and has no sidewalks.
As part of the development, the developer is required to build three raised crossings at Victory Road and a multi-use pathway along the same road. This year, the Ada County Highway District plans to make pedestrian improvements to one of the railroad crossings, a few blocks away on Malad Street. In 2024 the highway district plans to install a traffic light at the intersection of Malad Street and Federal Way, Nelson said.
The developer has also been required to place $14,640 into a trust account that the highway district will set aside for future speed bumps along nearby Columbus and Canal Streets.
At Tuesday’s public hearing before the City Council, Tim Keane, the city’s planning director, said that in the summer of 2022, the developer’s proposal “wasn’t good enough.”
“What we were seeing wasn’t commensurate in terms of the quality of it with this place,” he said.
He said the developer started over, which caused a “dramatic change” in the application’s quality.
Neighbor’s at the meeting objected to the buildings’ 68-foot maximum height, saying that would obstruct the views of residents who live to the south on the hill that is the Boise Bench, as they look northeast toward downtown and the Boise Foothills.
The outer rim of the development would have smaller buildings, while the tall apartment buildings would be at the center of the property.
Some neighbors said the effects on views would hurt their property values. Others worried about the traffic impact of so many new residents.
By a unanimous vote – council members Luci Willits and Holli Woodings were absent – the council approved the project and overturned the Vista Neighborhood Association’s appeal of the Planning and Zoning Commission’s approval.
“I do see a lot of wins here,” Council Member Jimmy Hallyburton said, referring to the public green space, pathways and availability of new housing.
This story was originally published February 15, 2023 at 11:12 AM.
