East Columbia. South Airport. Third Bench. Are these future Boise neighborhoods?

With population spreading outside of Boise’s city limits, the City Council on Tuesday gave the OK to staff members to develop plans and priorities for three potential neighborhoods near the city’s southeast boundaries.

Council members took aim at three chunks of Ada County along Interstate 84, areas the city is calling South Airport, Third Bench and East Columbia. None of them sits primarily within the city’s jigsaw southern limits, but each in its own way is “teed up” for development to accommodate the city’s spread, according to Boise Planning Director Maureen Brewer.

“The plan is really the vehicle” for guiding development in the area, Brewer said — and consensus Tuesday was that development interest in these areas is mounting in step with Micron’s economic engine.

“By not growing in this direction, we have to take responsibility for the wild western growth that we’ve seen,” said Council Member Jordan Morales, whose district abuts the land under scrutiny.

The target zones wrap from the Boise Airport south toward Kuna and east around Micron’s colossal new campus. South Airport would sit directly below the runways in areas largely earmarked for airport expansion or control. Third Bench would be south of that, mostly open sagebrush steppe in hills that roll toward land set aside for Kuna’s expansion goals. East Columbia would be on the other side of I-84, immediately east of Micron.

Tuesday’s discussion kicked off a yearlong planning push that would take years — or even decades — to fully realize. And guidance likely would be folded into the city’s next comprehensive plan, according to Mayor Lauren McLean, though it could be incorporated sooner through a public revision process.

McLean emphasized that plans should be drawn carefully and be “reflective of Boise’s values,” but reiterated the need for speed, “recognizing that we have a really unique window right now with interest and a need for homes because of these jobs.”

“We have to do this fast, fast, fast — and for a city, 12 months is fast,” McLean said.

Here’s a look at the three possible neighborhoods, the challenges they face and how they might fit into the city broader plans.

South Airport: An industrial hub

Slotted in snug to Gowen Field, aviation already has dibs on much of this unincorporated land. That fact is driving preliminary discussions on its usage, which McLean sees as “perfect for industrial development.”

Standing it its way: two huge price tags. Ada County Highway District would need to realign Orchard Street and extend Lake Hazel Road for South Airport “to achieve its highest and best use,” Brewer said.

Both concepts have pinballed around city government for years, according to Council Member Jimmy Hallyburton, but always have been too expensive to pursue. Each project on its own would have eaten up a year’s worth of the city’s ACHD allocation, according to Hallyburton.

“If we were to put one of these at the top of our (priorities) we would have taken everything else off our list,” Hallyburton said.

McLean agreed: “Nothing that any of you want to see can be built by ACHD if we want to build this,” she told the council. Instead, construction would require working with private landowners and Capital City Development Corporation, the city’s urban renewal district, which oversees the Gateway East redevelopment zone nearby

“We can’t get this done without partnership,” she said.

Third Bench: A recreation hot spot?

Unlike South Airport, Third Bench is mostly open space — and where city officials someday will have to mark an end to Boise’s southern growth. The area isn’t contemplated in the city’s comprehensive plan, but it does offer fresh opportunities for trails, Brewer said.

“It may be possible to provide residents that are living in South Boise a comparable or similar opportunity for recreation as those living near the Foothills,” Brewer said. “It may be possible to develop something in the south as special as the Foothills.”

That idea excited Council President Meredith Stead, who said she would love for the Third Bench to be considered with open space in mind. Her vision imagined Boise “sandwiched” between open space on the edges of denser development near downtown.

“What a neat idea, if we look at empty land on the south side of the city, to mirror something like (the Foothills),” she said.

Hallyburton had “heartburn” about developing the area at all, which he said was a “rare ecosystem around the world.” Beyond that, he was worried about the sorts of housing it may attract, invoking Eagle’s Avimor — a haven of large, single-family homes that Hallyburton said are extremely expensive to serve and taxing on city infrastructure.

“If we don’t have the resources, police, fire, water to serve these areas without putting an extra burden on other places, that’s going to be a hard area for me to approve,” Hallyburton said. “That’s why I want to make sure that we are planning well and kind of pushing infill development, rather than kind of reaching out into some other areas.”

East Columbia: Easy access to Micron

As the city lines are drawn, the area Brewer called East Columbia is almost wrapped into Boise now. Micron makes up its eastern edge, and the company likely would steer city planning for that area.

For Morales, that would mean housing and transit options that don’t mean driving to work.

“I think about all of these employees, driving to get to work only to have to circle the largest parking lot in Idaho to find a spot,” he said.

But previous planning documents didn’t expect Micron to plant such a large flag in the southeastern part of Boise. Here, too, roads are an issue. There’s only one way in and one way out, with no secondary access road for fire evacuation and “no plan in the works to create one,” Brewer said.

Morales said “it’s already a safety issue.” And as with Lake Hazel and Orchard, it’s a problem the city isn’t equipped to handle alone.

“In order to invest in a road network, we need the cooperation of property owners,” she said.

What’s next?

Brewer will take input back to the planning department and check in with the City Council in the year ahead, she said. She also aims to finish a housing capacity analysis, which should give the city a better idea of what it has room to build — and what it might need to grow to accommodate.

Despite the long runway, the prospect put a charge through some of the council members.

“This is really exciting,” Council Member Luci Willits said. “I think this is something Boise is ready to do.”

This story was originally published January 29, 2026 at 4:00 AM.