BOISE, Idaho — The City of Boise has been working for years to update it's zoning regulations, which is essentially a set of ordinances and laws outlining what can be built and where.
Growth is the cornerstone of BoiseDev, and it's why founder Don Day started his online service in the first place. Now as growth continues to skyrocket, so has Day's operation.
"We have a team of five to cover growth and business and the thing that go with it and what we try to focus on with questions people have they write us and tell us what it is we do a lot of those stories because people want to know what's happening in their neighborhood and how it effects them," Day said.
One of those questions that day and his staff write about are zoning changes in the city of trees. Day said when Boise Mayor Lauren McLean came into office, she wanted to start over a bit and change the way the city gets public feedback. And what some of that feedback showed was creating what the city calls modules where each neighborhood can stand on it's own, so to speak.
"The city thinks things should be a little more dense which should help the housing crunch because prices are going up and they think we can make the city more dense while at the same time allowing more commercial developments so in their vision people won't have to drive as far and where they will be able to walk," he said.
The city would like to see taller buildings, especially along transit corridors such as State Street and Overland Road, according to Day.
"They think, let's put in taller buildings so people can get access to a bus and do that in a way to cut down on the number of car trips," Day said.
Day says Idaho is a private property state and city's still get to dictate what they can do in certain parts of the city.
"What's interesting is the city is making a more free market argument that says people should build whatever they want on their property within reason, so if they want to build a duplex on a single family home they should be able to and the city's generally democratic so you've got some weird things that cross along idealogical line as far as where the city goes in the future."
And where that exactly takes us we're not quite sure — except growth in the Treasure Valley and across Idaho won't stop anytime soon.
