Council approves Falcon Townhomes preliminary plat after applicant widens northern setback; appeal rejected

The Nampa City Council on Wednesday approved a revised preliminary plat for Falcon Townhomes, a proposed cluster of two- and three-unit townhome buildings north of Lake Lowell Avenue, and denied an appeal that argued the plat did not substantially conform to a 2006 development agreement.

The decision followed a de novo hearing in which the applicant presented a reworked plan that shifts building locations, increases a north-side setback to 50 feet and adds landscaping and pedestrian connections. The applicant said the revised layout addresses constraints posed by an existing irrigation easement and improves buffers between new buildings and homes to the north.

The applicant’s representative, Bonnie Layton of NB5, told council the earlier 2006 concept plan was a schematic and could not be built as originally drawn because buildings in that concept would have overlapped an existing irrigation easement. “Once you overlay the topography and the easement for the irrigation district, you really see that the old plan was encroaching on some very specific site constraints,”…