CALDWELL, Idaho — This story originally appear in the Idaho Press.
Four single-family homes, three triplexes and 119 duplexes will soon be coming to Caldwell, as a new multi-family, medium-density housing development was approved by the city council on Monday night.
Homesteads at Wilson Creek, which will include 251 dwelling units total, will be constructed on a 28-acre swath of land addressed at 3307 E Ustick Road and 0 E Ustick Road. Almost a third of the land (32.8%) will be common open space, while 8.5% will be private open space. The development will also have a clubhouse and dog park.
Currently, the area is surrounded by single-family residential, commercial, industrial and undeveloped land. Bonnie Layton, a development services planner at NV5, said that its construction will require the addition of a right turn lane to Ustick Road and improvements to frontages of neighboring properties.
“This has become a standard comment on all of our staff reports, that we require all our developers to complete frontage improvements on the out-parcels for the adjacent properties, if we are able to obtain the right of way to do so,” city engineer Hallie Hart said.
David Henderson, who lives to the west of the planned development, expressed opposition to it out of fear that it will negatively affect his property values. Council member Diana Register, one of two council members to vote against its construction, agreed.
“Caldwell is not equipped. We do not have the infrastructure or the means to solve the housing crisis in the Treasure Valley,” Register said. “This is a great project, but it belongs in a bigger city like Nampa, Meridian, Boise.”
Alongside Register, council member Chuck Stadick voted against the development. Layton did not provide a timeline for construction.
POOL AND BATHHOUSE FUNDING
The council also approved the allocation of an additional $2 million toward renovations at the Caldwell municipal pool and construction of its new bathhouse, set to reopen next May. The pool has been closed since 2021.
City Treasurer Rachelle Castleberry said that the $1.5 million increase in funds for the bathhouse were necessary after receiving new budget estimates from the contractor, and that the extra $500,000 for the pool was to incorporate lighting and revamp utilities, as well as to reconstruct the patio to ensure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Several council members expressed discontent with the requests for more funds.
“Are they [the contractor] bidding lower just to win the bid, and then we’re just going, ‘here’s a million, here’s another million?' I mean, who doesn’t know a pool needs lights?” council member Brad Doty said of the resolution for more pool funding. “There’s got to be a standard.”
Castleberry said that she was confident that the $500,000 would suffice for the final stretch, and that “items get missed in design all the time.”
“It’s the existing patios we were trying to save, that were out of ADA compliance, that we determined we need to reconstruct more existing conditions than we anticipated,” she said. “That was why we decided to add the railing and reconstruct patios.”
Ultimately, the councilors all voted in favor of the additional funding, so as not to leave the project partially undone.
“I’m not happily doing it,” Doty, who made the motion to allocate the $500,000, said. “It’s out of frustration for sure, but clearly we need the pool completed.”
Editor's note: A previous addition of this story misattributed a quote from city engineer Hallie Hart to NV5 development services planner Bonnie Layton. Additionally, it said that Councilor Geoff Williams voted against the Homesteads at Wilson Creek development. It was Councilor Chuck Stadick who voted against it.
This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press, read more on IdahoPress.com.
