N. W. Neighborhood Ass'n v. City of Boise

172 Idaho 607

535 P.3d 583

NORTH WEST NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION, an Idaho unincorporated nonprofit association & registered neighborhood association of the City of Boise, Petitioner-Appellant,

v. CITY OF BOISE, an Idaho municipal corporation, Respondent,andTrilogy Development, Inc.; Viper Investments LLC; Fastwater LLC ; and Corey Barton, Intervenors-Respondents.

Docket No. 49179

Supreme Court of Idaho, Boise, November 2022 Term.

Opinion Filed: September 7, 2023

Ertz Johnson, LLP, Boise, for Appellant. Brian Ertz argued.

Office of Boise City Attorney, Boise, for Respondent City of Boise. James Smith argued.

Givens Pursley, LLP, Boise, for Intervenors-Respondents. Deborah E. Nelson argued.

BRODY, Justice

This appeal involves a petition for judicial review. Appellant challenges the district court's decision upholding Boise City Council's approval of three interrelated land use applications. We agree with Appellant that Boise City Council failed to provide a reasoned statement explaining its approval of the applications as required by section 67-6535(2) of the Local Land Use Planning Act. We remand this matter to the district court with instructions to set aside Boise City Council's actions and remand to the Council for the adoption of a reasoned statement.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The North West Neighborhood Association ("NWNA"), the Appellant, is a group of neighbors that reside in the northwest corner of Boise in an area some affectionately call "Old Hill Road." The neighborhood runs adjacent to the Boise foothills and was annexed into the City in 2014. The rural character and history of the neighborhood is important to many of its residents. The City of Boise recognizes the neighborhood as the "Northwest Planning Area" in "Blueprint Boise," the City's Comprehensive Plan.

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In early 2018, Trilogy Development, Inc., Viper Investments LLC, Fastwater LLC, and Cory Barton (together, the Intervenor-Respondents, hereinafter "Applicants"), through their representative, submitted three interrelated land use applications to the City seeking approval of a multi-use development project called "Prominence" on about 38 acres of land in the area. The project as initially proposed consisted of 286 dwelling units (156 single-family homes and 130 multi-family units). The applications were for: (1) a rezone from R-1A to R-1C/DA to increase residential density from 2.1 homes per acre to 8 homes per acre; (2) a planned unit development (the "PUD") with a use exception to provide flexibility in lot sizes and setbacks; and (3) a preliminary plat for a subdivision to provide a layout of the project and create and record legal divisions of land to facilitate future land sales.

A city planning team reviewed the applications and recommended to the Planning and Zoning Commission ("PZC") that they be approved with conditions. The planning team's recommendations included a statement that "[c]omments from public agencies confirm the project will not place an undue burden on the transportation system or other infrastructure in the neighborhood." NWNA, on the other hand, actively opposed the project. Shortly before PZC's public hearing, NWNA submitted a petition with approximately 2,500 signatures in opposition to the project, along with oral histories of the land and photos of the open space. Ultimately, PZC made the decision to deny the PUD and recommended to Boise City Council (the "Council" or "City Council") that it deny the rezone application and preliminary plat because, among other reasons, there was a lack of essential fire services needed to support the project. Without an approved zoning change and PUD, PZC also recommended denial of the preliminary plat since it failed to conform to existing zoning requirements.

The Applicants immediately appealed PZC's decisions to the City Council, arguing, among other things, that PZC failed to provide a reasoned statement supporting its decision as required by Idaho Code section 67-6535(2). About six weeks later, the Council held a public hearing that lasted well into the night because of public participation. At the hearing, the Boise fire chief explained that the fire departments in Boise, Meridian, and Eagle had a long-standing written "mutual aid agreement" that permits the departments to ask each other for help in times of emergency. With the advent of computer-assisted dispatch, the chief went on to explain that the fire departments agreed to dispatch the closest engine, closest truck, and closest battalion chief when a structure fire occurs. He explained that, in practice, they have what is called "automatic aid." He further explained that he thought the City could have a formal "automatic aid agreement" in place by the end of 2019. The chief also explained that there would likely be a fire station built in the northwest area by the end of 2025; while there was not one planned at the time of the hearing, the fire departments were talking, and the construction project was in the City's budget. After hearing from the fire chief, the Applicants, and concerned citizens, the Council voted to start deliberating on the applications at the Council's next meeting on July 23, 2019.

At the July 23 hearing, the Council again took up the applications and heard from the fire chief so that he could address some of the citizen concerns voiced during the prior public meeting. Specifically, he was asked to address the status of certain agreements with the Eagle Fire Protection District. He explained that he expected a signed automatic aid agreement very soon:

Chief Doan: Okay Thank you, mayor, Council members. Yeah, this is a whole bunch of things all combined into one. There is a mutual aid agreement. There's an automatic aid agreement. There's a joint powers agreement. And then there's a contract for service. And all of that kept getting mixed up in the testimony the other night. So, let me – let me try to clarify each one of them to be clear.

First, I appreciate how much support public safety, not only you, but all the neighbors have been discussing. And I appreciate it as fire chief. But mutual aid agreement, let's start there. We do have a mutual aid agreement with all the county agencies. It's – it's quite old. We have been working under that mutual aid agreement for many, many years. So we do have a signed mutual aid agreement.

Automatic aid agreement. There is no automatic aid agreement, that is correct. But we – we – through the mutual aid agreement, we automatically dispatch all of our units just like one agency. So in essence, even though there's not a signed automatic aid agreement, in practice, we do it anyway. So I'm willing and already working on it and I think we can have it done by the end of this month, maybe next month, have a signed automatic agreement with Eagle. It's not needed, but if that's what makes everybody feel comfortable, I will get it. And we've already – I've already called the chief from Eagle. We've already started the discussions. What we're going to do is, in writing, we're going to put down what we do. And that's simply it. So we will have a signed automatic aid agreement very, very soon.

The chief was also asked to address the assertion that the Old Hill Road area had experienced a decline in service since it was annexed into the city. The chief explained that there are two different levels of service – one set forth in Blueprint Boise and one internal standard used by the Boise Fire Department – and that neither standard was mandatory. He also explained that the Boise Fire Department meets its internal standard of 5 minutes and 30 seconds in the Northwest Planning Area with the assistance of the Eagle Fire Protection District and the North Ada County Fire and Rescue District:

Correct. So first, there was a quite a few – a bit of misinformation that there was a mandated level of service, that there was state statute or – there is nothing in federal or state or city that mandates a service, that the authority having jurisdiction, us, get to decide the level of service. There's two service level standards. There's the planning of four minutes a mile and a half in the Blueprint Boise. And there is our Boise Fire Department standard of we respond to all emergencies in five minutes and 30 seconds 90 percent of the time. Two different things. Neither are mandated. The five-minute and 30 seconds is our chosen level of service and we meet that in this area currently. All of us together – I know I've worked with all of you – believe that we should increase the service in the northwest. And we're working towards that. And I've presented my plan to move the station to Gary Lane to provide that service.

So we adequately serve this community right now. We meet our five minutes and 30 seconds with the help of Eagle, with North Ada County, with Boise. That's good government of all of us working together. And we do provide that level of service. Can we provide better? Absolutely. And I think that's all of our wish. I hope I didn't overstate that.

After addressing the fire service issues, Mayor Bieter also commented that he thought there should be some discussion about the possibility of using the city's open space and clean water funds in the development area to address citizen concerns. Based on these discussions and the prior public hearing, Council President Pro Tem Clegg moved to defer decisions on the applications so that the Council could give the Applicants and NWNA "firm direction" on the project's design issues:

I would – I would move that – that we defer for as – whatever length we can [the applications] with very firm direction from the council on some items that the parties could try to resolve and bring back to us for a final decision.

Clegg clarified that she wanted the Applicants to work with NWNA to: (1) redesign open space and pathways; (2) develop a phasing plan in concert with city plans for improved fire service in the northwest; (3) examine the form and design of the view scape...