‘It’s needed’: Nampa approves 80-home apartment complex

Project Architect Jeremy Putman said the complex will consist of a ring of five, three-story buildings, with parking situated in the center and underneath buildings. The project requires rerouting and tiling a portion of the Nampa Lateral, an irrigation ditch that runs diagonally through the property, he said.

While some of the residents of nearby subdivisions generally agreed with the need for more housing types, all who spoke at the meeting they did not wish to see it at that location, calling instead for businesses to support residents already living in the area.

The project is considered approved and the conditional use permit granted unless an appeal is filed for the project to be considered by the city council. The project will also pass through the city’s design review process, Putman said.

City of Nampa Planner Damion Snodgrass said that one of staff’s suggested conditions for approval of the project was for the applicant to submit a professionally prepared turn lane analysis for each of the property’s entries off of Amity Ave.

Housing for ‘young professionals’

Putman said that the complex will offer several types of apartments: twenty two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartments; thirty two-bedroom, two bathroom apartments; and thirty three-bedroom, two bathroom apartments.

Putman’s presentation materials to the commission showed that each apartment would have at least 70 sq. ft. of patio space. The project will provide 180 parking spaces for residents and their guests, and proposed amenities include a “picnic pavilion” and a pool, he said.

The target residents for the apartments, Putman said, are “young professionals” and families whose members need some alternatives to the single-family housing that predominates in that part of town.

Neighbors: ‘We have nothing’

About nine people testified about the project at the meeting, including residents of nearby subdivisions who worried that the apartments would bring more foot traffic, car traffic, and crime to the area.

Several also questioned why the project is proposed for an area that is zoned business commercial.

“We have no infrastructure in our area,” Patty Quinn said. “We have a gas station. We have no restaurants. We have nothing.”

Commissioners: ‘It’s needed’

Snodgrass said that the area is zoned “commercial business.” However, the city’s current comprehensive plan envisions the area as being “residential mixed use,” which can include both residential and commercial uses, according to the city’s current comprehensive plan.

Several commissioners noted that despite current zoning, the parcels have remained undeveloped for years. Some suspected that has to do with the cost of moving the site’s irrigation ditch to be able to build there.

“So when I’m looking at this, we have a developer who is willing to make this project site work and put something on it where it has been vacant for … a lot of years,” Commissioner Matthew Garner said. “So I’m inclined to look at this and say this is pretty cool because somebody is going to make this project work.”

Commissioner Steve Kehoe said the situation is similar where he lives, about two and half blocks from the proposed project.

“It has been 15 years, and there’s still nothing built on the empty lots — it has been a gas station on the corner with nothing around it,” Kehoe said, noting that the cost of the ditch alterations “is a lot of money.”

Garner and Commissioner Jeff Kirkman both said they have married daughters who live in apartments because they cannot afford to own homes in Nampa.

And while Kirkman said he had concerns about how the project could affect traffic, he also said that, “traffic is pretty much a disaster all over town.” He said he would be for the project if there could be additional measures broadly to address traffic issues in the city.

“I don’t have any issues with this project,” Kirkman said. “I think it’s needed.”