Since 2020, Boise’s Catholic Diocese has been trying to build an office building near the North End. But it has come up against substantial opposition in public hearings, especially from neighbors who took issue with the three-story, 20,000-square-foot building’s proposed height.
The Boise City Council caught the church off guard in April by denying its request to modify an existing development agreement at the site, 902 N. 8th St. Council members said the project’s lack of housing or retail made it too big of a stretch to align with the original agreement’s intent to build a mixed-use building at the site.
That denial essentially killed the project, Council Member Luci Willits said at the time. Christian Welp, the church’s director of special projects, called the decision a “complete surprise.”
In the months since, the church has worked with neighbors to compromise on the building’s height, and modified its request to include a “public-use space” on the building’s first floor. But it has also come to view the City Council’s requirement to include housing as a “government burden” on its exercise of religion, according to a statement the church released Friday.