BOISE, Idaho — The Boise Fire Department is planning to build a new fire station in northwest Boise, according to the fire chief.
It is slated for an empty plot of land on Bogart Lane and State Street. The fire station would cover homes and land north of the river in the city of Boise, between Glenwood Street to the east and the Eagle-Boise city line to the west.
Boise Fire Chief Mark Neimeyer says the goal is to have construction on the fire station to begin in 2023. He expects to present a proposed land purchase agreement to Boise City Council members on Tuesday.
City council must sign off on the purchase of the land and building of the station, but Neimeyer does not expect pushback because city leaders have asked for this since he took the position a year ago. The council is set to take the matter up on Tuesday.
This announcement comes after years of neighbors fighting for more equitable fire coverage in the northwest corner of Boise, where a large swath of the area is considered a wildland-urban interface. For decades, they have called on mayors and city council members to build a fire station closer to their homes.
“It will definitely meet our standards. So we have a five-minute travel time standard that we shoot for and it will absolutely meet that five-minute travel time standard to our entire northwest corner,” Neimeyer told KTVB.
The topic heated up in 2016 when the Hill Road and Bogart Lane area was annexed into the city of Boise. The conversation grew even louder a couple years later when CBH Homes and Trilogy proposed a dense new development, Prominence, off Hill Road and Bogart Lane. City council approved the subdivision in 2019. When completed, Prominence will have around 240 units.
The closest Boise fire station to this area - about 2.5 miles away - is a North Ada County Fire & Rescue (NACFR) station on N Glenwood St between Chinden Boulevard and State Street. Through a contract, Boise firefighters staff that station. However, it doesn’t cover this particular area, leaving a fire coverage gap.
Currently, the Eagle Fire District responds out to that area through a mutual aid agreement with Boise Fire. Eagle’s station on North Horseshoe Bend Road and West Floating Feather Road is four minutes – 2.3 miles - from Hill Road and Bogart Lane.
Eagle Fire Chief Tyler Lewis told KTVB the agency is looking to move its station on Horseshoe Bend Rd closer to large developments along Highway 55, including Dry Creek Ranch and Avimor. However, that project is contingent upon Boise Fire building a station in Northwest Boise to cover the area Eagle currently serves.
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