Planning commission wants more time to review Boise State expansion plans

Boise State has been working on its master plan for two years, but Boise Planning and Zoning commissioners did not get a first look at the proposal until late last week.

The plan would guide the next 30 years of growth for the school, which today has 22,000 students, would be able to serve 30,000 to 35,000 under the proposed plan.

“The first I heard about it was in the newspaper … that I would be hearing [the application] in four days,” said Commissioner Stephen Miller during the Commission’s hearing Monday night.

“If we were to vote on this one way or another today, we would be either a rubber stamp or we would be just denying it because we don’t have enough information,” Miller said. “I do not like either of those options.”

All four commissioners said they thought the application lacked information about the impact of the proposed road changes, which include closing University Drive between Lincoln Avenue and Juanita Street; closing Belmont Street between Grant and Denver avenues; putting in a new intersection at Boise Avenue and Capitol Boulevard and building a new east-west road south of University Drive.

The Commission voted 3-1 to defer the application to its Jan. 4 hearing and requested an Ada County Highway District staff member come to that hearing to talk about the district’s analysis of the proposed transportation changes and some of the other traffic issues. Commissioners Miller, Douglas Gibson and Rick Just supported deferring the application; Commissioner Chris Danley opposed the motion, saying he preferred to approve the master plan and “put it in the hands of City Council.” Three commissioners were absent.

Once Boise’s Planning and Zoning Commission completes its hearing process and makes a recommendation on the new plan, the application will go before the Boise City Council. That hearing is tentatively set for Tuesday, Jan. 12.

This story was originally published December 14, 2015 at 10:51 PM with the headline "Planning commission wants more time to review Boise State expansion plans."