Boise, Idaho’s capital and largest city, has embarked on an ambitious plan to manage recent historic growth and guide its future development. The population of the Gem State metropolis rose to 236,634 in 2023 from 205,671 in 2010, according to U.S. Census data, and the city and its surrounding areas have regularly been at or near the top of the fastest-growing lists in USA
In 2019, amid concerns about losing the quality of life residents enjoy and attracting transplants, Boise began rewriting its planning and zoning codes, which took effect on January 1. About $340 million in new projects are currently underway, primarily in historic downtown Boise. downtown.
Micron, the homegrown microchip maker headquartered on the edge of the city, has just begun work on a $7 billion manufacturing plant, fueled by federal funding under the Science and Chips Act of 2022.
In 2021, the city council and Mayor Lauren McLean announced plans for city operations to be carbon neutral by 2035 and for all of Boise to be carbon neutral by 2050; the city is in the process of converting all its facilities to electric power. In 2023, Boise first negotiated an agreement with Idaho Power to purchase energy from renewable sources to operate a new water treatment plant and add to the Boise Airport. Boise plans to expand the program in the coming years and recently received a $3.8 million federal grant to install electric vehicle charging stations in the city.
To secure its future water supply, Boise launched its Water Renewal Utility Plan in 2020. The goal is to reuse treated wastewater for industrial use and then re-inject it into the aquifer . A pilot program testing various treatment systems is currently underway near Micron’s headquarters, and land for a future processing plant was purchased earlier this year.
Two blocks of 8th Street, in the heart of the city, are permanently closed to traffic. Outdoor dining spaces that appeared during the COVID-19 pandemic will be made permanent, and pavement and sidewalks are being modified to accommodate pedestrians. The new car-free street officially opens this spring.
Photo courtesy of Boise City Council
Management of the wave, avoiding expansion
Jessica Szelag, the city’s deputy planning director, says that in the years before the code rewrite, her agency was reviewing nearly 100 projects a month, but special requests were slowing the process.
“We did an assessment of how many requests for rezonings and variances and conditional uses we were getting, and it was overwhelming. This is a sign that the code no longer works,” he says. “There hadn’t been a major update since the 1960s, and we needed it to address these high-level goals we set for ourselves.”
The effort to rewrite the code was joined in 2022 by Tim Keane, who was hired as Boise’s director of planning and zoning after leading similar efforts in Charlotte, North Carolina and Atlanta.
“Relative to other places in the West, Boise has an opportunity to do what others haven’t and that’s grow into itself.”
—Tim Keane, City of Boise Director of Planning and Zoning
“Relative to other places in the West, Boise has an opportunity to do what others haven’t and that’s grow into itself,” he says. “Places like Salt Lake City and others have exploded through the valleys, and you have all the problems associated with that. We had hours and hours of public hearings, and the public said, ‘We don’t want to be the next city of America or the West that spreads’”.
The resulting code classifies land use into residential, mixed-use, open land and industrial groups. Multiple overlay zones for each land use type aim to preserve the unique characteristics of neighborhoods or restrict building near things like natural hazards, community open spaces, and recreational areas. The code increases density in many areas, particularly downtown along city bus routes. In other areas, parking requirements and height restrictions were removed, and several downtown parking lots have been or are being converted into community meeting spaces.
Keane says the hope is that removing restrictions and adding incentives will free up designers and encourage developers to create more living and mixed-use spaces downtown.
“We didn’t want just one solution for each area. We want multiple options in all areas,” he says. “As for the center, there has been a more residential trend, and this continues. The more people we can live in the city and downtown, the better.”
An underutilized parking lot was transformed into Cheri Buckner-Webb Park. It is one of the public spaces that contribute to activating the city center and attracting residents to the area.
Image by Brian Fryer
Activity in the center
Boise Planning and Zoning Officer Jason Blais notes “a record number of multifamily units and record valuation levels permitted in 2021 and 2022. The number of permits was down in 2023, but the value remained at a record level. Some of these projects have been delayed, but most are still underway.”
Szelag says residents of lots in the neighborhood where the allowed density was increased have acted quickly. “The year before the new code went into effect, we had 45 applications for accessory housing units,” he notes. “The new code has only been in place for nine weeks and we already have 60 ADU applications.”
Keithly, the city’s economic development director, says many of the city’s current projects and infrastructure improvements have been made possible by tax increment financing from the city’s redevelopment arm, Capital City Development body
“You really don’t know what big changes to a code will mean for several years.”
—David Wali, Managing Partner, Gardner Group
Kyle Hemly is a landscape architect with Boise-based design firm CSHQA, which has been involved in many of the recent changes to the city’s urban landscape. The company recently led the redesign of several downtown streets to include separate bike lanes and curb extensions, called bulbs, to improve pedestrian safety and calm traffic. The office has also worked on the changes of two blocks of the wide, tree-lined 8th Street, which are being converted into pedestrian-only spaces. “During COVID, [city officials] let the restaurants open up the outdoor space, and it was very popular,” says Hemly, and “our design almost doubles the outdoor space for the restaurants.”
New residential, mixed-use and hospitality projects make up the bulk of current activity in the city centre. At the intersection of 12th and Idaho streets, Arthur Tower, a 26-story mixed-use project with retail and 298 residences, rises on what was once the site of a surface parking lot. The $140 million project was a public-private partnership between the city and 12th and Idaho LLC, a joint venture of several developers. Designed by Chicago-based Soloman Cordwell Buenz and Associates and built by Boise-based McAlvain Construction, Arthur will feature two levels of rooftop amenities, including a pool behind an irregular roofline that references the nearby Sawtooth Mountains.
Construction on the $100 million Broadstone Saratoga mixed-use building with 334 apartments, Idaho Central Credit Union offices and 100-apartment residential towers is moving forward, as are plans to demolish the city’s YMCA and rebuild it to include expanded and low-rise facilities. moderate income housing.
Salt Lake City-based Okland Construction is nearing completion of the eight-story, $68 million Renegade, a 122-room boutique hotel designed by CSHQA and intended to reflect Boise’s historic architecture.
11th Street, a former motel is being renovated and expanded into The Sparrow, a 68-room boutique hotel with a cafe and food truck in a shared plaza. The developments, which share a frontage with Calle 11, have allowed for improvements such as bike lanes and light bulbs.
Tim Keane, Boise’s director of planning and zoning, speaks at one of the many public meetings held as the new planning goals and code changes were developed and presented.
Image courtesy of the City of Boise
Szelag says the biggest projects designed under the new code are a satellite campus for the College of Western Idaho that will include instructional space; mixed-use buildings; a hotel facing the Boise River; and a Boise State University expansion that will include office buildings, parking, retail space and 400 housing units, half of which are designated as “affordable.”
Salt Lake City-based real estate developer Gardner Group has developed the 8th and Main Tower, or Zion’s Bank, the state’s tallest building at 18 stories, as well as City Center Plaza, a pedestrian plaza and a commercial space built on top of the Boise Transit Center below grade, among other recent projects.
David Wali, Gardner’s Idaho project managing partner, says he and, he assumes, other developers are still sorting out what the new codes will mean for future projects.
“You really don’t know what big changes to a code will mean for a few years. We’ll have to see the economics behind a project and how the banks will finance them. I suspect there will be positives and negatives coming out of it,” he says. Wali notes that the company “can decide what we want,” such as more downtown residents, “but the market will tell us what to provide.”
