The Boise City Design Review Committee’s treatment of the Simplot family and its proposed 7-acre downtown project is appalling. Besides showing the city’s over-regulation of a good proposal, the delays also highlight the city’s complete ignorance of the 95 percent of Boise that is not downtown.
The JUMP project (for Jack’s Urban Meeting Place), announced in May 2008, is a $100 dvelopment to include a foundation building and new headquarters for Simplot Co. between Front/Myrtle streets and 9th/11th streets. It is intended to be an arts center, meeting space and tribute to J.R. Simplot. In my opinion, it is an inclusive, sensitively designed project that would bring jobs and vitality to downtown Boise. As a public relations consultant for nearly a decade in Boise, and a newspaper reporter for 12 years before that, I saw cases where local governments were helpful and on-the-ball regarding development proposals, as well as obstructionist. This case appears to fall into the latter category.
But what do I know? According to the Idaho Statesman, delays by the city of Boise have reached a point where the Simplots are considering pulling their project, and I can’t say I blame them. After a meeting with Mayor David Beiter (one of over 100 meetings the Simplots have had with city officials), the Simplots completely redesigned the project. After that, the commission came back with a list of 60 changes, all but two of which the Simplots have adopted.
Meanwhile, in the 95 percent of Boise that is not downtown, the city’s lack of interest in redevelopment and good urban design is astounding. The city routinely allows developers to build parking lots between buildings and the street – perhaps the biggest no-no in urban design – and huge tracts of abandoned school sites grow weeds and become eyesores. Thousands of low-income residents remain at risk of eviction from rickety trailer parks, yet the city has studiously ignored them while it obstructs the Simplot project. The Bench’s few remaining historical buildings are routinely razed while Boise City and its historic preservation department show little interest outside of downtown. The Design Review Commission does a good job at the minutiae of sapling caliper sizes but is utterly unable to see the vital relationships between buildings, streets, affordable housing and people.
The abandoned school sites are good examples of Boise not getting it. Supposedly, the school district was supposed to work with the city to find uses for these properties that would add value to the neighborhoods. At this point, they’re going to become mostly parking lots, with some strip development at the rear. Besides its toothless comprehensive plan, the city shows no interest or vision on the Bench and is overconcerned about Downtown.Children routinely walk to school without sidewalks, yet the city is far, far behind the curve in getting sidewalks in these neighborhoods.
My advice: Defer to the Simplots much more (it really is a good design) and roll up your sleeves and focus on the pressing needs for safe routes to school, urban decay, historical preservation and low-income housing in the rest of the city. This won’t be nearly as much fun as sticking your fingers in a $100 million mega-project, but it will mean so much more to Boiseans.
Social media this-and-that