Nampa picks library site

The Nampa City Council on May 19 voted 3-1 to authorize the city to purchase downtown property, using money from the city’s general fund balance, for a library and public safety building, Deputy City Clerk Debbie Bishop said. The site lies at the southwest corner of 11th Avenue South and Third Street South, and extends toward 10th Avenue South and Fourth Street South. Current occupants include a Taco Bell restaurant, two churches and a couple of small-office users.

The library component includes a parking garage, “likely two structures, with the library facing Third and the garage bordering Fourth,” Beth Ineck, Nampa economic project manager, said.

Ineck said the site would complement a mixed-use project anticipated on the current Nampa Police station site between 11th and 12th avenues south and Second and Third streets south. The mixed-use project likely would face 11th, she said.

At a May 19 public hearing on the purchase, arguments against it included that the parking garage location is too far from the downtown core, the city funding for the purchase is not needed because Nampa already has a funding mechanism through the Nampa Development Corp. urban renewal district, and the city should delay the purchase until after a judge approves a $15.5 million bond to begin building the facilities, the Idaho Press-Tribune reported. A judge is expected to consider the matter next month.

Ineck said the city is moving ahead partly because negotiated purchase agreements assumed that the judge would rule by late April. Waiting longer could have sparked renegotiation of those deals, she said.

Nampa has negotiated about $1.645 million of parcel buys on the site, based on appraisals, and negotiations continue for parcels to accommodate the public safety building. The city could spend up to $5 million overall for the two-block area.