Spend some time in Southwest Boise and it can feel like you’re shipwrecked in a sea of houses, with roofs stretching for miles in every direction.
While the houses – some virtual copies of each other – have served as a bulwark against the ongoing housing shortage, residents view the area as commercially barren. For many, there is an almost unbearable lack of places to grab a bite to eat or buy clothes without spending half an hour in the car.
Frustrations over this commercial desert have been simmering for years and came to a head in January when the Board of Ada County Commissioners heard hours of public testimony against converting one of the last remaining tracts of land in the area zoned for commercial use into more housing .
Based on complaints from neighbors, the board made a final decision Wednesday to kill Utah-based Peg Cos.’s proposed $45 million project, which would have built 118 homes and 20,000 square feet of retail on a vacant 25-acre parcel to point out.
Commissioner Ryan Davidson, who won his race against challenger Clyde Dornier in Tuesday’s Republican primary, said he has been talking to voters lately and has heard more opposition to high-density projects like Peg’s proposal.
“We generally support commercial development and residential development as well,” Davidson said. “But after hearing a lot of public testimony, I don’t think this is a project that would be a good fit for this neighborhood.”
This is the second time the project, called Alante Homes at Hazelwood Village, has appeared before commissioners after the board rejected Peg’s 2022 proposal, which included only residential units. The board asked Peg to add commercial elements to the plan, which they did.
“We’re just disappointed because the only reason we’re here a second time is because of the specific feedback that the commissioners gave us… and that we followed exactly,” said David Bourne, Peg’s investment director. “I don’t know if they were sincere in their desire to let us do that, or if they would always give up when faced with opposition from the neighbors.”
According to previous Idaho Statesman reporting, the project would have included 20 one-bedroom, 37 two-bedroom and 61 three-bedroom rental units.
According to previous Statesman reporting, the units would have included single-family and duplex offerings that ranged from an average of $1,700 to $2,500 per month. The developers proposed including a private park, clubhouse, swimming pool, pickleball courts and playground.
The 20,000 square feet of commercial space on the east side of the property would accommodate six to 12 businesses, Bourne said at a meeting in January.
Bourne said that while he believed many neighbors meant well, he had never seen such a clear case of NIMBYism, an acronym that stands for “not in my backyard” and refers to the neighborhood’s resistance to development.
Residents celebrated the board’s decision Wednesday, hoping the site could one day better serve the neighborhood.
“The whole key to the planning is keeping the advertising going to support the homes that are coming there,” said Gerry Armstrong, a nearby resident and former director of planning and development for Ada County.
Armstrong said the goal of the planning is to build community and there is a lack of gathering spaces in Southwest Boise to do that.
“You want people to get together and have coffee, have breakfast together,” Armstrong said.
Diminishing hope for mixed neighborhoods
Carlos Vidales, a nearby resident who led much of the opposition to the project, said about 80 hectares in the area had been set aside for commercial use. Then it dropped to 50 hectares to build houses. Then it dropped to the 10-acre parcel.
“This package is the last of those,” Vidales said.
According to Armstrong, who helped draw up the area’s land use map, there was concern that developers would fill Southwest Boise with billboards, such as along Fairview Avenue.
Instead, they wanted to build small “commercial villages” clustered around intersections that could offer places like barbershops and cafes, Armstrong said.
As developers rezoned the region for more housing, these goals began to disappear, he said.
Now there is hardly any land available in the area that can be used for anything other than housing, Vidales said.
“Just about everyone I know … has counted on it being businesses there,” Vidales said. “There is a lot of demand for pent-up products.”
What would more homes do about clogged roads?
Like many other developments in Southwest Boise now working their way through the entitlement process — such as the nearly 800-acre Murio Farms project and the proposed Syringa Valley project — congested roads are one of the biggest concerns for local residents.
Murio Farms is about a mile drive from the 10-acre plot of land that Peg wanted to rezone.
Several local residents testified before the Boise City Council in early May about Murio Farms, saying the area’s roads cannot support the amount of development.
“We’re getting so much additional housing in the area that the infrastructure can’t keep up,” Estee Lafrenz, president of the South Cole Neighborhood Association, said at that meeting.
While the plans for Murio Farms include some commercial areas, Vidales said they likely wouldn’t start building businesses there for another decade.
For now, the vast majority of commercial options for Southwest Boise residents lie to the north, forcing residents to cram onto a few roads like Cloverdale, Five Mile or Maple Grove to pick up supplies.
“We all have to drive long distances,” Vidales said. “We need the businesses so we don’t clog the roads in Ada County.”
What’s next for the Southwest Boise location?
There are still some possibilities to bring Peg’s project to life, Bourne said, although these are unlikely.
The most likely option for the site now? A 24-hour self-storage site, Bourne said.
“I don’t think this is the best use of this neighborhood,” he said. “It denies many of the things Ada County claims it’s looking for.”
Under current zoning, converting the vacant lot to self-storage would not require any type of public hearing, Bourne said. Only administrative approval would be required.
No developer will see how Peg was treated and want to move forward with a plan to mix homes and businesses there, Bourne said.
“There will never be a store or restaurant on that site,” Bourne said.
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