‘This is huge’: Developer looks to build 1,600 homes, golf course in Boise suburb
An enormous subdivision with a golf course designed by a PGA Tour winner has just been proposed for Star, the small but growing suburb 16 miles from Boise.
Over 1,600 homes could be built on 2½ square miles on both side of the Ada-Canyon county line, adding 4,000 or more people to a city whose population was just over 11,000 in the 2020 census.
The Willowbrook subdivision would be spread across 1,555 acres within the Hillsdale Estates subdivision in Ada County and along Purple Sage Road between Kingsbury Lane and Can-Ada Road in Canyon County.
About 725 acres of that would be dedicated to single-family homes, town houses, retail space and the 18-hole golf course.
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The developer is Richard Phillips, of Willowbrook Development Inc. and Twin Islands LLC in Garden City. Hillsdale Estates is an existing subdivision by Phillips on 1,800 acres with 340 homes.
The development team is in the early stages of its application. The developer, the City Council and mayor and various transportation and city agencies are scheduled to hold meetings throughout February to work through the process before the development’s public hearing in March.
Phillips has sought to develop the land for years. A document filed by the developer with the city says that in the 1990s, Willowbrook Development purchased and developed these properties in Ada County and was approved to develop 500 acres in Canyon County.
Willowbrook withdrew a proposal in 2018 to build more than 3,000 homes there after neighbors, including Hillsdale Estates residents worried about traffic and other problems, went to court to block it. The new development calls for slightly more than half that many homes.
The developer thought the subdivision would be served by Middleton Sewer and Water, but by last year it was clear that Middleton would not be able to annex the property. Willowbrook wants to be annexed by Star, rather than apply through each county, to “provide consistency in development standards and services.“
“Willowbrook has recognized that developing adjacent properties using two different land use authorities is not in the best interest of current or future residents of either county,” the developer wrote in the narrative.
On Tuesday, the Willowbrook development team met with the City Council, Mayor Trevor Chadwick and representatives from three road agencies (the Idaho Transportation Department, Ada County Highway District and Canyon County Highway District) and the Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho. The discussion centered around traffic that the subdivision would bring to two already busy highways, Idaho 16 and 44.
The agencies asked the developer to bring back a broad traffic-impact study so they could better understand where new intersections would need to be on the highways.
With Willowbrook, Star joins Eagle, its neighbor to the east, in considering big annexations of land to be developed for housing. Last year, Eagle held a series of meetings with executives of Avimor, who plan to bring an annexation request to the Eagle Planning and Zoning Commission this year. Avimor would bring 10,000 homes on nearly 36 square miles of the Eagle Foothills.
“We need to make sure we do what we need to do,” Chadwick said Tuesday, as he made sure the audience online and in person could hear what each representative said. “This is huge for Star.”
A new golf course, in 2022?
When Willowbrook proposed the earlier development four years ago, it did not have a golf course in mind, said Nate Mitchell, of A+E Construction LLC, who represents Phillips.
“There is a certain demographic of people moving into the Treasure Valley, and they like to play golf,” Mitchell, a former Star mayor, said during the meeting. “One of the things that has evolved is at BanBury Golf Course in Eagle, you used to be able to get a tee time any day, and now they are turning down 60 groups a day for a tee time.”
The designer of the golf course would be Tom Weiskopf, a 16-time PGA Tour winner and a golf course designer since 1985. According to his website, Weiskopf designed “some of the finest courses in the United States, Scotland, South Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Caribbean.”
“Four years ago I would have told you, you would be stupid to build a golf course in this valley, and now I am here asking you to approve one,” Mitchell said.
He said the COVID-19 pandemic and the move to remote work may play a role in the popularity of golf in the area.
Nationwide, there was an increase in golfers and rounds played in 2020, according to Golf Digest. A National Golf Foundation study found there were 24.8 million golfers in the U.S. that year, a yearly increase of 500,000 and 2%.
The Willowbrook development staff and the city have two workshops scheduled at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 8, and Tuesday, Feb. 22, at Star City Hall. The public cannot participate in the workshops, but can attend and watch online.
A public hearing on the development is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 1.
This story was originally published January 28, 2022 at 4:00 AM.
