Council approves Harris Ranch town-center amendments to add street sections, prototypes and a linear open space

The Boise City Council voted to approve amendments to the Harris Ranch Specific Plan (SP-01) that add new street sections, three block prototypes and a new village-green block to the town-center area, while preserving a minimum amount of green space and updating streetscape design standards.

The application proposed four new street sections and three new block prototypes to guide future development on roughly 18 acres in the Harris Ranch town-center area. The applicant asked to change the land-use designation for blocks TC-8 and TC-9 from "village green with restaurant" to "mixed-use village center," and to add a new TC-10 designation that would be a dedicated village green where no commercial uses could be built. The new prototypes (13, 14 and 15) would allow either a consolidated green space or a distributed linear open-space configuration through the center of the town center; staff said the applicant now proposes a minimum of 5 acres of green space that would be dedicated as open space and not available for commercial building.

Staff briefed the council that the Planning and Zoning Commission had recommended approval subject to edits and conditions detailed in the staff packet. The Barber Valley Neighborhood Association's president, Gary Veasey, told the council BBNA had worked with the applicant and staff for months and that the association supported the SPO-1 amendment; the applicant team said they had negotiated revisions following the commission hearing and worked with Ada County Highway District (ACHD) to address traffic and street-section concerns.

Public commenters raised several issues. Neighbors asked that the consolidated green-space option be preserved and warned about the effects of three- and four-story multifamily buildings on nearby single-family lots; others asked for wider sidewalks where pedestrian traffic could be higher. One caller urged the city to reevaluate wildlife mitigation and animal-vehicle collisions in the area, and another asked that the city protect the neighborhood's pedestrian character. The applicant and staff answered questions on how angled and parallel parking would be handled, how parking overhangs would be managed and how street-improvement costs relate to the Harris Ranch Community Infrastructure District; ACHD staff participated remotely and said the agency could approve the amendment subject to site-specific conditions.

Council discussion generally praised the neighborhood association's engagement and the applicant's revisions since the Planning and Zoning Commission hearing. Council members said the street-section and open-space changes will improve the town center and bicycle and pedestrian connections and that the amended prototypes will preserve or redistribute open space into a linear park while keeping the overall public benefits of the original plan. The council voted to approve the zoning ordinance amendment; staff will proceed with detailed project-level review as individual development proposals are submitted.