Decision not made yet on new Interfaith Sanctuary location

BOISE, Idaho — Another meeting was held on a homeless shelter proposed for State Street on Monday, but there is still no decision on the possible relocation of Interfaith Sanctuary.

Interfaith Sanctuary has already purchased the proposed building and has sold the building they are currently in.

Related: Discussions continue about Interfaith Sanctuary's proposed new location

The City of Boise Planning and Zoning Commission heard public testimony after the commission voted to defer the conversation at their November 15 hearing. The meeting started with questions from commissioners, before questioning the Boise Fire chief and Boise Police chief about issues raised in crime prevention through an environmental design study.

Boise Police Chief Ryan Lee said the police department did not receive contingency plans for security for review by Interfaith Sanctuary.

"What we expect is that private entities like Interfaith Sanctuary are in charge of allocating their own resources in deciding what level of security they can commit to for safety planning," said Lee.

Commissioner Chris Danley motioned to defer the hearing for a future date since they didn't have answers to the public questions about safety at the new location. But Interfaith Sanctuary's attorney, Geoffrey Wardle, pushed back.

"We can not keep kicking this down the road. The time is running," said Wardle.

The motion was retracted and the Commission allowed the public to testify. The Commission heard around six hours of public testimony, stopping just after 10 p.m. because of how late it was.

Our media partner BoiseDev reports there were over 40 people still waiting on Zoom to testify.

A vote was not made on Monday and the Planning and Zoning Commission will hear the issue again on December 13 at 6 p.m.