Op-Ed: Comments Needed on Boise’s Zoning Rewrite

By Dave Kangas • March 20, 2023

For those who are following Boise’s Zoning Code Rewrite, you should be aware that the first round of public comments are due Wed March 22nd, only 22 days after the release of the 611-page document. In the ultimate “data dump”, the City of Boise released this document without any guidance or executive summary as to what changes were made from the last version finalized in October 2022. The March 22nd deadline is for comments to be included in the Planner Report that will be released the next day March 23.

To be clear, there will still be the opportunity to submit additional comments before the first hearings at the end of April. You will also be able to testify if you choose. The March 22nd deadline is for comments to be included in the report that the Planning and Zoning commissioners will be looking at over the next month, as they review the final draft and submitted comments. I hope you can see, that these first comments will have the most impact in framing the commissioner’s analysis of this important document. It is also concerning to realize that the Planner’s Report is already complete regardless of comments received.

The question I have, is just what comments were they expecting to receive in such a short timeline, when there are no publicly released summaries of the changes? Is the “fix” already in? We’ll see. In the meantime, please stay home from any planned vacation and get your comments in!! Coincidental? You tell me!

If you want some help with comments, reach out to us on Facebook: @RejectBoiseUpzone or our website RejectBoiseUpzone.org. We have some talking points and people standing by to help craft letters. One of which is to request a delay in the finalization of this process, until a new city council, fully representing the newly created council districts, is elected and seated in January 2023. As it now stands, 2 of the 6 Council seats will be held by Councilors appointed by Mayor McLean.

Even if you only have time to send a short email, it is important to “set the tone” early.

Email comments for the Planning and Zoning Commission hearing using this address: zoningrewrite@cityofboise.org and reference these application numbers: ZOA23-00001 and CPA23-00001.