The Boise City Council made a few big decisions impacting the future landscape and quality of life in the city on Tuesday night.
They took up the proposed new Shoreline and Gateway East urban renewal districts - efforts to revitalize their respective areas. The Shoreline District is in Downtown Boise, along the Boise River on one side and River Street on the other, and between the Connector and Capitol Boulevard. It also includes the Lusk Street neighborhood.
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The Gateway East District is located southeast of the Boise Airport and essentially encompasses Federal Way to the north and east, Boise city limits to the south and the Boise Airport to the west. According to urban renewal agency Capital City Development Corporation (CCDC), Gateway East was proposed to “diversify Boise’s economy, create quality jobs and plan for industrial growth by improving infrastructure and promoting industrial development."
The City Council unanimously passed both plans Tuesday, saying they're confident urban renewal will help with economic development and improvements in ways not possible without it, in addition to providing protection through infrastructure improvements for people who live within the Gateway East District.
Urban renewal is an economic development tool used to encourage development and re-development in an area through tax-increment financing. To break it down simply: a boundary is drawn around an area the City and CCDC want to improve because it is considered blighted or underdeveloped. After an urban renewal district is formed, a county assessor sets a base value for each property in the district.
As property values and taxes rise with new development, tax dollars above that base – what CCDC calls “incremental value” - generates taxes that go to pay for public improvements within the district. Tax dollar amounts under that base continue to go to your school district, city, highway district, etc. Urban renewal districts sunset after 20 years.
Simultaneously, within the Gateway East District, a trucking terminal is proposed to go in next to Blue Valley, a decades-old 200-home mobile home community. R+L Carriers appealed Boise Planning & Zoning Commission's denial of the terminal, therefore a public hearing was set for Tuesday night. In a surprising and rare move, the Boise City Council sent it to mediation so the company and neighbors can work together on a design for the 77,000 square-foot facility off Eisenman Road.
“We want to solve it and see them work to solve it in a way that protects the existing neighborhood - the people living there now - with a recognition that there's a right to develop around them,” Boise City Council President Lauren McLean told KTVB. “I feel badly for people that did come but at the end of day we could have heard everybody then made the same decision.”
KTVB caught up with neighbors after city council promptly made their decision.
“Shocked, disappointed," said Bonnie Hardey, president of the South Eisenman Neighborhood Association and Blue Valley Tenant Association. "A lot of people turned out in wheelchairs, oxygen tanks, canes and made effort to come here and at least be heard. I think the council should have at least given them an opportunity to express themselves. There's been contention since the very beginning.”
“We have ideas that would help make the project more livable for us. It’s up to R+L if they want to make those changes or not,” added neighborhood association vice president Ronald Puccinelli. “I hope we get a resolution. I hope we can make it work, I really do.”
Neighbors and R+L Carriers will meet the week of January 8 and come back to the City Council on January 15 for a public hearing and, McLean says, hopefully with a solution. The city will appoint a neutral person to mediate and it will be on the city's dime.