DBA speaker: Housing, transit could make Boise thrive 

By Lora Volkert

IDAHO BUSINESS REVIEW

Downtown housing, transit and green buildings could make Boise a city that prospers well into the future, said Neal Peirce, who keynoted last week’s Downtown Boise Association meeting.

Peirce, who writes the Citi-states Reports newspaper column on issues facing metropolitan areas, praised Boise’s efforts to increase housing and transit options and build green buildings downtown.

“We know that when people move in and choose to stay in downtown, that city is really moving,” he said.

Such efforts encourage walking, which helps keep America from becoming “fat sludge nation.”

They support independent business, because pedestrians are more likely than drivers to stop at someplace called “Bertha’s Caf&#233″ instead of McDonald’s, he said.

And they reduce greenhouse gases and energy consumption. The most sustainable communities in the future will be those that are less dependent on fossil fuels, he predicted. Global warming stands to affect even landlocked areas, since ski areas can be threatened by melting snowpacks and droughts hurt farmers.

Boise needs to work on downtown housing for a variety of income levels, he noted. He recommended inclusionary zoning, which forces developers to set aside part of their projects for low-income housing, and real estate transfer taxes, which can be used to fund low-income housing programs.

Government agencies are continuing to work to improve downtown, Mayor David Bieter said.

He pledged to change Planning and Zoning regulations by next April to make it easier for businesses to locate downtown.

Bieter noted that Idaho’s congressional representatives successfully appropriated $9.5 million over a four-year period to Valley Regional Transit to build a multimodal transit center, which would include a parking garage, bicycle parking and an inter-city bus depot.

Since the center could be built on the route for a downtown circulator – perhaps a streetcar or trolley – part of the funding will be used for a feasibility study for the circulator, one of Bieter’s pet projects.

Capital City Development Corp. plans to make building work force housing in downtown a priority and continue its analysis of brownfields in downtown so potentially contaminated land can be cleaned up and redeveloped, Executive Director Phil Kushlan said.

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To contact the author of this story, send email to: lora.volkert@idahobusiness.net.

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