BOISE — The Boise City Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing Tuesday to take public testimony on two proposed city ordinances calling for a public vote to approve the city’s plans for a new Main Library Campus and possible city participation in a privately-initiated sports park project, Boise officials announced Friday.
The proposed ordinances originated from two signature petitions validated by Ada County Clerk on May 29.
The public hearing will be held as part of the City Council’s 6 p.m. meeting on Tuesday, June 25 in the Maryanne Jordan City Council Chambers at Boise City Hall, 150 N. Capitol Blvd.
Following the public hearing, the council will consider how to proceed.
“Tuesday’s hearing will include presentations from city staff and the leaders of the citizen-led initiative. After those presentations, members of the public will be given three minutes each to present their testimony” said Boise City spokesman Mike Journee.
“Those interested in testifying can sign in on the sheet located outside of the Council Chambers before the meeting begins at 6 p.m. on Tuesday night. Those unable to attend the meeting, can email comments for the public record on this item to citycouncil@cityofboise.org,” he explained.
According to Idaho state law, city council members have thirty days from the date of the petition validation to schedule a public hearing on the proposed ordinances. In addition, Idaho state law gives the council the opportunity to adopt the proposed ordinances within that same thirty-day window.
If the City Council chooses against adopting the ordinances as written, the ordinances will be placed on the November ballot for voters to decide if they should be enacted. If this “vote on whether to vote” passes, it would require subsequent votes before either project could proceed, Journee stated.
If the council elects to adopt the ordinances immediately, the vote on the Library Campus project could come as soon as November, bypassing the need for two votes, he added.
It is unclear how the ordinance calling for a vote on a potential downtown sports park could or should move forward. No formal proposal has been presented by the sports park developer since he began working to put the project on a new site last year. Without that proposal, it is unclear what role the Boise would have, if any, in the project or exactly what a ballot measure would be asking of voters.
