2 Boise-area cities fought over 1,600+ acres each wanted to develop. What voters decided

A battle that pitted two Boise area cities against each other over precious, buildable land played out in the Canyon County commissioners meeting room, in court documents and finally in an election.

Only 450 people, who live between Kingsbury and Can Ada roads in Canyon County, voted on a ballot question in Tuesday’s election that determined which city — Star or Middleton — would become the proprietor of the land. The winner was Star, according to unofficial Canyon County election results.

Over the past year, Middleton and Star have argued over their overlapping areas of impact — the unincorporated county lands outside city limits that cities plan eventually to annex.

Star wants to approve development up to Kingsbury Road to the west of the city and to connect the properties to city services. Middleton wants to do the same up to Can Ada Road to its east.

Both Kingsbury and Can Ada Road run north to south. Kingsbury is 2 miles west of Can Ada Road. The fate of the disputed 2.6 square miles (more than 1,600 acres) was decided in a close race, where 51.2% of voters wanted to be in Star and 48.8% of people wanted to be in Middleton.

Middleton’s area of impact was first established with Canyon County in 2001 and was adjusted in September 2021. Star began negotiations over its area of impact with Canyon County last year, that was when the fight over the overlapping areas of impact began.

In a meeting with Canyon County commissioners, both Middleton and Star said they had planned for years to annex the land into their cities eventually. Star had active applications for development in the area and approved annexation requests before it developed the area of impact.

The commissioners hoped Star and Middleton could work out a compromise, but after several failed negotiations over the last year, the cities couldn’t agree. The commissioners decided to let voters in the disputed area decide. Idaho code says county commissioners must approve the overlapping impact areas before submitting the matter to voters. The commissioners voted unanimously to approve the overlapping areas on March 10, 2021.

Many homeowners in the area value their rural lifestyle and worry about traffic and overcrowding that would come from higher density development, residents said during Canyon County commissioner meetings.

“We’ve been working on our comprehensive plan, and we’ve had many discussions with neighbors and landowners over in that area,” said Trevor Chadwick, mayor of Star, by phone. “We reduced our densities in our comprehensive plan. In fact, if you look at our comprehensive plan, it’s less dense than what Middleton’s comprehensive plan shows.”

Chadwick said the city will continue to annex properties in the hills near Kingsbury Road and Foothill Road.

But a lawsuit from the city of Middleton is still pending. The lawsuit challenged properties that Star had annexed that Middleton says were in its area of impact, and therefore illegally annexed. Neither Chadwick nor Steve Rule, Middleton’s mayor, could say what would happen to the lawsuit.

Rule said he had suspected the residents between the two cities would prefer to be in Middleton. He contended that Middleton has more low-density requirements in its land use plan than Star.

“But I was wrong,” Rule said by phone. “The people that live there that are actually owning the land and should vote ... voted to go to Star.”

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