Op-Ed: City Planning
By Dorothy Moon • April 21, 2023Recently, the City of Boise announced that it would spend nearly $2 million to continue using a hotel as a homeless shelter. Nevermind that local shelters, like Boise Rescue Ministries, said they had the capacity and resources to assist with certain homeless demographic groups, including women and women with children.
Boise Mayor Lauren McLean’s continued commitment to the failed policies pushed by her big city colleagues in Portland, Seattle and Los Angeles have garnered plenty of media attention.
Less has been said about her radical plan to remake Boise into a high-density urban jungle. Like the planning experts who have remade San Francisco, Mayor McLean is using public monies to make local governments your landlord.
McLean’s radical city planners have deployed Orwellian-sounding “affordability incentives” to push President Obama’s radical “affirmatively furthering fair housing” regulations and turn quiet neighborhoods into streetscapes that will resemble the government-constructed and government-run “project” housing in places like Chicago and Detroit.
President Trump rescinded Obama’s housing regulations but the Biden Administration has brought them back, as they seek to make housing the centerpiece of their “equity” agenda.
One of the tools Mayor McLean is using is something called “upzoning,” or where planners look to place multi-story or multi-unit dwellings in neighborhoods for single family homes. In layman’s terms, this means radical Democrats want to reconfigure existing zoning rules so that massive low-income apartment buildings can be built right next to your family home — destroying your property value.
Lots of readers will dismiss this as yet another example of the crazy LA-Portland-Seattle ideas taking hold among the wannabe liberal elites in Boise. But it’s much bigger than just Boise.
Affordable housing and the need to responsibly manage massive development is a central issue confronting our state. Liberals know this, and they want to capitalize on the costs and concerns facing so many of Idaho’s working people to implement their radical agenda to remake American life. Their end goal? Putting government bureaucrats — whether they’re urban planners or finance regulators or climate scientists — in charge of your home, your mortgage, your future. Ultimately, they want to make home ownership a thing of the past and instead see every American paying rent in a house or apartment owned by the big hedge funds like Black Rock.
The Democrat’s housing agenda is being pushed all across the country—and all around Idaho. Republican policymakers — in both state and local office — need to start thinking long and hard about the kinds of cities we will live in and pass on to future generations of Idaho’s hardworking men and women. Otherwise, Democrats — like Mayor McLean and her elite friends in LA and Portland — will have us living smashed head-to-toe in tenement towers with no conceivable way to ever own a home.
Dorothy Moon was elected to serve as the chairwoman of the Idaho Republican Party in July of 2022. Moon served three terms in the Idaho Legislature as State Representative for District 8. Moon’s career in public service has focused on the advancement of individual liberties and reducing the size and scope of government.
This Op-Ed was submitted by Dorothy Moon. Op-Eds do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of those at the Idaho Dispatch.
Tags: Affordable housing, Barack Obama, Boise, Boise Planning and Zoning, Donald Trump, Dorothy Moon, Equity, High Density Housing, Joe Biden, LA, Lauren McLean, Planning and Zoning, Portland, Seattle, Upzoning, Urban Housing
Boise is the first Idaho city to propose this large of change in the zoning code, be forewarned other Idaho communities! The City of Boise is trying to pass this new 620-page code under the “Code Amendment” process which doesn’t require a public vote. How the heck can a 620-page new code be called an “Code Amendment”! Dorothy – how does Idaho State Law allow this? The residents of Boise deserve the right to vote on this code! We are the ones that live and own property here and the City Council (2 of 6 members of which were recently appointed by McLean) shouldn’t be allowed the right to vote on this. Using the amendment process to pass this code is unethical at best.
You hit that nail right on the head. However, just to be fair, the legislature will likely go after this “flaw” in the law and consolidate local zoning power to a few such as Joe Palmer or Mike Moyle, at the earliest opportunity, next session. In case you consider that opinion as unfair and uncalled for you might take a look at what they did in the tranportation arena this past session, in particular what they did or attempted to do but now must wait until next session, to the Ada County Highway District. Diminishing local control and enlarging State control is a hallmark of our current Idaho Legislature. You might find it interesting/concerning that the only member of the freshman class of legislators from Ada County this past session to vote consistently to reduce the size of government was Treg Bernt. He was also the only one to refuse considerable campaign funds from the Speaker.
Treg Bernt has shown his true RINO colors. Ran for office with the necessary “R” next to his name, but after being elected, has regularly sided with the democrat / socialist extremists in the legislature– giving millions to teacher union-controlled schools, keeping Idaho enslaves to the Biden Admin and promoting Idaho schools’ obsession with gender issues. Treg Bernt lied to all of you and continues to do so.
Obviously, you espouse the concept of larger government and more government. Treg was one of the very few that voted his belief in less government. You might try to compartmentalize your opinions. Your broad brush mentality doesn’t make much sense. I do understand how difficult that can be at times.
That’s certainly ann interesting point about it being handled as a code amendment when it is promoted as a complete rewrite, now renamed Modern Zoning Code. I know they avoided Austin’s mistake by decarling a massive rezone, instead they just changed the specificationns of every zone.
What ever happened to We the people. How in the hell can you appoint your own people and at the same time be able to pass, ordinances, laws, codes, or what ever else you wish to call it without We the people having a say.
I guess We the people had better wake up and make a stand or here comes the Californication of the great state of Idaho.
Don’t anyone think it’s a little odd you don’t hear any of this on the news to speak of.
How big is the swamp.
Amen, we better wake up and take control of our city back- they have already forcefully and quietly upzoned my ‘formerly’ quiet neighborhood and plan on another multi-level apartment complex directly behind the one on Ethridge which they are telling us the one on Owens St. is on a different street so it won’t affect us that much – an absolute lie! They will be cramming 72 cars into two small non-through streets! 15 minute neighborhoods popping up in the middle of Boise right now – Check out the projects off Fairview – Ethridge and Fairview/ Owens. So much for our quiet neighborhood park (Florence) as well. The socialist swamp with media backing is proliferating right in front of us.
But Tom, these are the super smart who know best. Be sure to come to the next 4 days of hearing with the Planning and Zoning Commission. Gulags for the poor and working class and open space for the rich.
If you’re going to let people camp on city streets and parks, openly use drugs, put up with their shoplifting, you are ENABLING them, and ATTRACTING them. This is NOT doing them a favor. If you make it tougher on them, many will reluctantly work for a living, which you can then reward by helping them out. You can end this homeless epidemic simply:
1. Ban camping within city limits.
2. Incarcerate shoplifters to convey the message that it’s wrong.
3. Build mental health hospitals and rehab centers for the rest.
Mayor McLean knows full well that the Boise Rescue Mission and similar entities are not only well-equipped to handle this issue, but are focused on helping people turn their lives around to become productive and healthy members of our community. And that’s the rub…McLean and her ilk want these people dependent upon government handouts. The city of Victoria, British Columbia has been doing this exact thing for years: buying up hotels and turning them into “homeless” housing. The result: a hemorrhaging city budget, soaring crime rates, destruction of not only the properties themselves but the properties surrounding these sites. Many of the former motels have had numerous fires set, most often by drug use in the rooms. When a person has no vested interest in something, no “skin in the game”, there is a lack of concern for the property; for the resident of these places know that if the building they are in is destroyed, the city will just give them another one. All McLean needs to do is to look at Victoria, Seattle, Portland or any left-run major city to see how this policy is a disaster waiting to happen. But then, why should she care? She can destroy the livability of the city, then move on to her next job when her term is over.
Again Boise is the Portland Oregon of Idaho and is a most corrupt place.
Sue the Mayor. She’s garbage. Don’t be fooled nor blind, there’s more conservatives in Boise than there are nut jobs. They just need to get to work.
You go Red. I would be furious if I were the farmers. FEDS KEEP YOUR FFING HANDS OFF LAND OWNERS PROPERTY.
Will anyone mention the 900lb gorilla in the room? I love Dorothy and she nails the local issues on the head but in my view if that is all we are trained to see, that is all most will ever see. I know screaming global conspiracy won’t hep grow the numbers to get people more engaged but it should, considering that is what it is. The Structure of Agenda 21/2030 is such that local planning associations are doing the bidding for the Sustainable Development policies that cities and counties have bought into with their comprehensive plans. Some know what it is and others are being duped. Either way, if our job was to hold government accountable, we sure won’t if we don’t know how or what the issue is. If I stand alone on an island, I am okay with it because not only is what I say true, others know it they just can’t say it because they are in fear of being seen as a radical conspiracy theorist. More Americans should be unafraid to call it what it is, globalism, Agenda 2030 and The Great Reset!
Northern Idaho is not exempt from this. For example, the growth of Post Falls and CDA. The beautiful irrigated fields of the prairie….going, going gone! Who really bought them? Only rooftops and fences visible. Who lives in all of these, where do they work? Do they pay their own rent? Has the infrastructure been prepared to accommodate this rapid growth? Has our precious aquifer been adequately protected?