Homes, townhouses, a regional park. All coming to this Eagle Foothills planned community
A developer with plans to bring thousands of homes to the Eagle Foothills cleared a major hurdle Tuesday.
The Eagle City Council approved GWC Capital’s plans to build 41 homes for the Spring Valley Planned Community, recently renamed Valnova Subdivision. It was the first step of approvals needed for the project, as the developer and city work through the proposal for the community. GWC Capital said it hopes to eventually bring over 7,000 homes to the Eagle Foothills — for now the plans contain only 2,000 homes, and the remaining housing units will still need approval from the council.
The 41 homes will be a combination of townhouses and single-family homes, said Landon Northey, a construction manager with GWC Capital. The homes are part of the development’s first phase, which is planned for completion in 2025, according to the application.
The council also approved nine parcels of open space in the subdivision, which will include Valnova’s first community park on 15 acres. The park will be the “central hub of the community,” Northey told the Eagle City Council on Tuesday.
The plans for the park include a club house, a pool, tennis and pickleball courts and sports fields. A new public trailhead will also connect to trails throughout Valnova and Bureau of Land Management land east of the subdivision.
“The concept for Spring Valley is to create a comprehensive master planned community that is thoughtfully designed and inclusive of a variety of housing product types, distinct neighborhood and community centers, a mixture of non-residential commercial uses, land for public and educational facilities and a regional park and trail network,” said GWC Capital in an application letter to the city.
Tuesday marked one of many times GWC Capital will need city approval as it builds up to its planned 7,000 homes on 6,000 acres. In 2007, the city of Eagle established a master-plan process that requires the city to hear proposals from Spring Valley one section at a time. The process ensures that the development complies with city code and Spring Valley’s master plan, and that it has up-to-date engineering studies over time, Nichoel Baird Spencer, long-range planner with the city of Eagle, told the Idaho Statesman in a previous interview.
The 41 homes and regional park will be located in the center of the Spring Valley planned community, approximately ¾ miles northeast of the intersection of State Highway 16 and Equest Lane.
Traffic concerns near Valnova
After approving the 41 homes in Valnova, the Eagle City Council then decided to send a letter to the Ada County Highway District, asking for two more traffic lanes on Beacon Light Road, traveling east and west, between Linder Road and Idaho 16.
Previous Eagle council members limited the amount of lanes on Beacon Light Road to three lanes. But since 2020, the city’s residential and commercial development has grown between Linder Road and Idaho 16, making congestion frequent along the road, Baird Spencer said in Tuesday’s meeting.
The thousands of homes in Valnova are planned for less than 1 mile up Idaho 16 from Beacon Light Road. Eagle planning staffers said they believed now would be a good time for the city to reconsider the number of lanes on Beacon Light, given the expected growth in the area.
The council voted to ask ACHD to change Beacon Light Road to five lanes between Linder Road and Idaho 16 and leave it as three lanes from Idaho 55 to Linder Road.
This story was originally published April 26, 2023 at 2:05 PM.
