Star approves Moyle Junction commercial plan for 'eastern entrance to the city’

After some spirited haggling at a public hearing, Star City Council members on July 7 approved a development plan for a commercial center on the northeast corner of Highway 44 between North Moyle Avenue and Plummer Road.

Moyle Junction, presented by Ahlquist Development in partnership with the Moyle family, includes plans to build a 16-acre shopping center on the lower portion of a 77-acre parcel owned by the Moyles, whose family includes Idaho House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star.

Moyle Junction has been zoned for eight lots, aimed at courting businesses such as pharmacies, restaurants and a medical facility.

“We want to make sure that the eastern entrance to the city is something we and the city of Star can be proud of,” said Ryan Cutler, chief development officer for Ahlquist. “We’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to develop something in Star, and we’re really excited to do this for a piece of property everybody in this room knows about.”

The lower portion of the property was approved for commercial development in April, but the public hearing dove into what Star wants from a new “eastern gateway to the city.”

A marquee issue for the developers was whether they’d be allowed to build drive-thrus on each of the lots. At the beginning of the hearing, Cutler urged attendees “not to be scared” by a slide that requested the allowance of a drive-thru on every lot, leading to firm counters from city council members.

“I don’t think anybody wants to see a bunch of drive-thrus when they come to town,” council member Steve Day said. “We have a chance to make this beautiful. I’m looking for a softer look, something more inviting. We don’t want to look like fast food row.”

Cutler argued that allowing drive-thrus would attract more clients beyond just fast food restaurants and could bring in pharmacies and other local businesses that could make use of them in other ways.

“So we can do our best to get as creative we can to make those drive-thrus as effective as possible without going around the building,” Cutler said, “but to stand here and say that we’re going to have no drive-thrus around a building on the front of this parcel is a real challenge for us.”

City Council members eventually granted the development permission to include drive-thrus at the two lots on either end of the development’s south side, as well as an exception to put up three buildings up to 60 feet tall on the site. One of those lots, lot 7 on the developer’s map of the site, is expected to host a medical facility.

An acceleration lane onto North Plummer from a two-way driving lane running through the middle of the complex was also included in the approved plan to improve safety conditions for vehicle traffic heading north past the site.

Idaho Transportation Department spokesperson told the Idaho Statesman that it’s letting Ahlqhuist use old traffic numbers plus a 2% growth model to perform its new traffic study.

A vision ‘everyone shares’

Residents who signed up to speak during the public hearing were either for the project or neutral upon hearing Cutler’s presentation. A common point of concern was the distribution of parking space.

Mike Shetler, who lives across the street from the site in the Heron River development, spoke in favor of the plan, saying that Moyle Junction would give him the opportunity to make a splash with a new gym he’s keen to build on one of the eight plots. He also raised concerns about parking.

“I just bought the gym here in Star about a month ago, and we have the neighboring restaurant that also parks there,” Shetler said. “It’s like everyone shares the parking, which is kind of nice. I’m hoping we can limit some of the parking in some of the places to make it not so much blacktop. But the drive-thru is a good deal. Even the building I’m going to be proposing has a little drive-thru for the gym’s coffee shop and juice bar.”

Cutler told the council that in all of its developments, Ahlqhuist tries to incorporate the same type of shared space among businesses.

“I appreciate (Shetler’s) comment about cross parking,” Cutler told the council. “We look at cross parking and access on all of our developments because of exactly what he said. We’re going to do our best to work with staff to make sure that we meet the code that’s required by this City Council but also do our best to make it have more of a hometown feel.”

The council agreed with Shetler and included placing buildings closer to the road along State Street a condition of their approval.

Shetler may not be alone in his anticipation. Cutler indicated that Ahlqhuist has had meetings with multiple prospective tenants.

City staff recommended the city annex the entire property, but in order to meet the intent of the comprehensive plan for the city, they recommended conditional approval to designate the northern part of the property as rural and residential, which will continue to be owned by the family until further notice.

“I will tell you this,” Mayor Trevor Chadwick said. “That’s a benefit to the city of Star because we have to police the county portion of this area and get no benefit from it. So if this development comes into the city, at least the Moyles are finally going to pay city taxes.”