A listing near the Waterfront District will tell you it sits steps from the Greenbelt. It will mention the private beach, the mature landscaping, the five-minute bike ride to downtown Boise. What it will not tell you is what's happening on the vacant land just beyond the fence line, because as of this summer, nobody in Garden City has fully decided that yet either.
That's not a metaphor. It's a literal, ongoing city process with a file number, and it sits directly against some of the same riverfront neighborhoods that portal descriptions treat as a finished product.
What's Actually Sitting on the Other Side of the Fence
Between Heron Park, the Waterfront District, and Clay Street, there are 34 undeveloped acres owned by 16 separate parties, including the Ada County Highway District. That parcel used to be ACHD's maintenance yard. The agency is selling it as part of a broader shuffle of its real estate holdings, a move that traces back to a settlement with Garden City years earlier requiring the yard to relocate.
The city is calling its planning framework for the area the Heron Commons Specific Area Plan, filed under the number SAPFY2026-0001. It is not a done deal. It is not even a proposal for a specific building. It's a zoning guide for what could eventually get built there, and the city has spent 2026 arguing over what that guide should say.
"So, Slow Down"
At the Planning and Zoning Commission's public hearing on May 20, longtime residents pushed back hard on the pace. Nancy Baskin, a Garden City resident, told the commission this was a chance to get something right at scale, calling it a generational project and a chance for development to be done right. Her closing line became the headline of the local coverage that followed.
The commission listened. Rather than send a recommendation to the city council that night, it postponed and scheduled a joint workshop to hash out the details further, continuing the public hearing into July.
Three Options, and the Fence Line Depends on Which One Wins
The draft ordinance under consideration, known as Option A, splits the 34 acres into three subdistricts. Which one ends up bordering a specific home matters more than the acreage total.
| Subdistrict | Where it sits | What it currently proposes |
|---|---|---|
| Public Interface | Closest to the Greenbelt itself | Development capped at 40% lot coverage, keeping the riverbank open |
| Residential Edge | Between the river parcels and existing neighborhoods | Meant as a buffer zone, but its exact form is still being negotiated |
| Mixed Use Residential | Set back further from the water | Combines housing, retail, and cultural uses, without a coverage cap yet finalized |
That middle category, the Residential Edge, is the one doing the real work for anyone who owns or is considering a home nearby. It's the buffer between whatever gets built on the old maintenance yard and the streets people already live on. And it's also the subdistrict city staff have floated removing entirely.
The Number That Doesn't Match the Streetscape
Here's the detail that should stop any river-adjacent buyer mid-scroll. Current zoning for Waterfront District properties already allows buildings up to 72 feet tall. That's roughly six or seven stories, on land where the existing streetscape is mostly two-story homes with lap siding and private docks.
City staff acknowledged the mismatch directly in the May staff report, writing that limiting the height of adjacent properties would conflict with the intent of supporting a mixed-use development pattern. Instead of a hard height cap, the report leans on softer tools: building alignment, window placement, and tree buffers to manage privacy and sightlines. Whether that satisfies residents who bought under the assumption that "riverfront" meant low-rise permanently is still an open question.
Where the Fight Stands Right Now
Development Services Director Jenah Thornborrow introduced a third path at the May hearing, an informal Option C. Rather than lock in a fixed Residential Edge subdistrict, this version would keep Option A's general uses but require any developer proposing a project near existing homes to address privacy concerns directly, through building height, window placement, and landscaping, on a case by case basis rather than a preset formula.
Traffic is the other live wire. The plan proposes finally connecting a long-standing gap in Adams Street between 37th Street and Thurman Mill Street, along with a new multi-use pathway following the Thurman Mill Canal. The idea is to give cyclists and pedestrians a way to reach the 36th Street bridge without funneling through the increasingly crowded Greenbelt itself. Not everyone wants that connection open to cars. David Twyver, another Garden City resident, told the commission there is no good reason to allow that to be a car passage, arguing it should stay limited to bikes, pedestrians, and emergency vehicles.
The city council held a work session on the file on July 13. As of this writing, Garden City's own permit tracker still lists SAPFY2026-0001 as pending, with no final ordinance adopted.
What This Means If You're Actually Shopping Near the River
If you're comparing a listing in the Waterfront District, Riverside Village, or anywhere along this stretch of the Greenbelt against something in Eagle or downtown Boise, the median price and the square footage are the easy parts. The harder question is what's still being decided next door, and it's a question worth asking before you write an offer, not after you close:
- Ask your agent to pull the specific file number, SAPFY2026-0001, and check which subdistrict would border the parcel you're considering.
- Ask whether the Residential Edge buffer will survive in its current form, or whether Option C's case-by-case privacy review becomes the standard instead.
- Ask about the Adams Street connector specifically if the home you're viewing sits anywhere near that gap between 37th and Thurman Mill.
None of this means the area is a bad bet. Garden City's riverfront demand has been real for years, and a mixed-use district that finally puts the old maintenance yard to better use could be good for property values across the corridor. But "steps from the Greenbelt" describes a location, not a guarantee about what gets built between here and the water in five years.
A Few Questions Worth Asking Directly
Does this affect homes already built inside the Waterfront District? The plan governs the 34 acres of currently undeveloped land nearby, not existing platted lots inside the Waterfront District itself. The relevant question for an existing home is what will eventually sit on the adjacent, currently vacant parcel, not whether your own lot gets rezoned.
When will the city actually decide? There's no confirmed final vote date as of this writing. The July 13 session was a work session, and the file remains open on the city's tracker. Anyone under contract nearby should ask their agent to monitor the file number directly rather than relying on a closing timeline that assumes the question is settled.
Is the height concern specific to this new plan, or does it already exist? The 72-foot allowance is part of the current Waterfront District zoning, not something introduced by Heron Commons. The new plan is deciding what happens on the adjacent 34 acres, using a mix of two competing frameworks that both reference that existing height allowance as their baseline.
If you're weighing a home near this stretch of the river against options in Eagle, Meridian, or Boise proper, this is exactly the kind of detail that doesn't show up in a listing description or a median price chart. Kent Davies tracks these local zoning and development questions block by block across the Treasure Valley, and can walk you through what's actually settled versus what's still being decided before you make an offer near the water.
