Industrial complex proposed next to Boise mobile-home park. The residents fight back

An island of homes in Boise’s far southeastern corner that is surrounded by industrial development will likely see a large trucking depot go up next door, adding more commerce to the area southwest of the Boise Airport over the strong objection of the neighbors.

On Tuesday night, concerns centered around accusations that an industrial project of this kind would never get built next to a wealthier neighborhood, which had more resources to fight it.

This isn’t the first time the residents of the Blue Valley mobile home park southwest of the Boise Airport have come before the Boise City Council asking for more consideration. In 2019, the neighborhood objected to a trucking terminal being built next to them, which ended in a land swap approved by the council that placed the terminal a quarter mile away.

Nor is it the first time these residents have felt neglected. More than 100 residents were mistakenly left off the voter rolls for years after the city took control of the neighborhood, according to previous Idaho Statesman reporting.

The Lincoln Property Co., headquartered in Los Angeles, plans to build seven buildings totaling 1.2 million square feet on 78 acres, according to a memo prepared by city planning staff members. The project would include large warehouse buildings and trucking delivery bays, and is located north of the WinCo Foods Distribution Center at 8675 S. Warehouse Way.

Residents cite health hazard from diesel fumes

Though most of the surrounding area has industrial uses and is considered by the city as an industrial area, the Blue Valley neighborhood of about 200 homes came into being in the 1970s as part of Ada County, and was annexed by Boise in 2013. The neighborhood was allowed to be built as a conditional use, meaning that it was an exception to the general land use in the area, according to a city staff member. When Boise annexed it, its allowed use was grandfathered into the city’s plans.

Since then, residents say they’ve had to fight with the city to protect their neighborhood from encroaching industry, raising concerns at a more-than-three-hour City Council hearing on Tuesday about the effects diesel fumes from the industrial parcel would have on those who live there, who include disabled people and large numbers of Latino people.

“If you live on the wrong side of the tracks, you’re going to be exposed to hazards,” Brian Ertz, an attorney representing Blue Valley LLC, the owner of the mobile home park, told the Statesman.

About 20 people protested outside City Hall before the meeting, carrying signs that read: “A City for Everyone Except Blue Valley,” a reference to Boise’s emphasis on being “A City for Everyone.”

“It’s very hazardous to our health,” said Bonnie Hardey, president of the South Eisenman Neighborhood Association, noting that the fumes from large numbers of semitrailer trucks could affect residents, especially those with disabilities.

Council member cites property rights, law

At a May meeting, the city’s Design Review Committee imposed restrictions on the property company’s plan, including disallowing truck idling overnight, requiring the construction of a landscape buffer and limiting the brightness and direction of lights allowed on the property.

Along the property’s north edge, which abuts the residences, the developer said it would build a berm and dense tree screening. A parking lot would be on the other side of the tree screening, followed by a large industrial building about 120 feet south of the property line. That large warehouse would also be constructed before the other buildings, providing additional barriers to sound emanating from further inside the property.

During discussion, council members advocated for adding further conditions to the property to protect residents, but most said they could not reject the proposal because the land in the area is designated for industrial use.

“The law is the law, and the property rights are the property rights,” Council Member Patrick Bageant said, noting that industrial projects are allowed in the area, whereas the Blue Valley neighborhood is only allowed as a conditional use. “We can’t make decisions that conflict with that.”

After extended discussion, the council voted to deny the neighborhood group’s appeal but asked the developer to try to shift a trucking road further south, away from the homes, and to also consider adding further sound barriers along the northwest edge of the property.

Bageant, Council President Pro Tem Holli Woodings, Council President Elaine Clegg and Council Member Jimmy Hallyburton voted in favor of the motion, while Council Members Luci Willits and Lisa Sánchez opposed it.

“I have sympathy for (the developer) because you’re following the rules,” Willits said. “I have sympathy for the (neighbors) because you think the rules are unfair.”

Parcels of city-owned property abut the industrial property to the east and west, and Hallyburton said he would raise that issue during future land-use discussions in the hopes that the land could be used as parks or some other non-industrial use.

‘What environmental injustice looks like’

At attorney for the developer, Deborah Nelson, said that residents would not be harmed by the industrial use.

“There’s nothing about this decision that is impacting the makeup of the existing residents,” she said, while also noting the efforts the company had gone to limit the effects the warehouses and trucking would have on nearby inhabitants.

Residents of the neighborhood who testified said they felt like one of only a few affordable portions of Boise was being constricted by industry, and that such a project would not be allowed if it were to be proposed near a wealthier neighborhood.

The city’s zoning ordinance says that heavy industrial areas “should not create hazardous conditions,” which Ertz said the diesel fumes would do.

Thirty-four percent of the neighborhood’s residents have disabilities, versus 11% of the city’s general population, and 11% are Latino, compared with 6% in the Boise area, according to another attorney representing the neighbors, Brian Stephens.

“You have the discretion to interpret your ordinance to protect these people,” Ertz told the council in closing remarks. “This is what environmental injustice looks like. This is how it feels.”

Some residents of the neighborhood submitted requests that their disabilities be accounted for, which the Fair Housing Act requires in certain instances. The letters did not receive responses from the city, according to the testimony.

A spokesperson for the city of Boise did not immediately reply to an inquiry about the requests.

Stephens, the other attorney, echoed Ertz, saying the council had not protected the community.

“At the end of the day, they chose to be part of a bigger pattern of bringing industry to the most vulnerable, the most diverse and the least able to protect their rights,” Stephens told the Statesman.