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Revised BSU expansion plans approved

Posted at 10:49 PM, Jan 19, 2016
and last updated 2016-01-20 00:54:02-05

The Boise City Council unanimously approved a revised, scaled back plan Tuesday night presented by Boise State University for its future expansion.

Phase one of the expansion will now include the building of an Honors College on land already owned by Boise State.  Phase one is expected to be completed within the next 10 years.

The university revised its original plan after concerns from homeowners in the area.  Original expansion plans would have impacted homes near the BSU campus.

Many people at tonight’s meeting applauded Boise State’s flexibility in changing some aspects of the plan but some neighbors still expressed concerns over later phases of the plan that could include expansion into neighborhoods.

“In our neighborhood eight of the homeowners are ranging from 77 to 86 years of age.  Eight different properties, these are older people who raised their children there, their grandchildren everybody else expected to die there.  20 years was not a problem, six years is,” said one community member.

“We have no reason at Boise State to feel like we are pushing this and running over our neighbors.  We want to have them as part of our process so the very first thing we did was after the planning and zoning commission, and we started to understand these issues in more detail, the first thing we did was adjust our plans,” said Kevin Satterlee, Boise State University Chief Operating Officer, Vice President and Special Counsel.

Boise State says it will continue discussions with the community and hopefully be able to reach agreements on any issues the neighbors feel are major concerns.