Nampa Mayor Debbie Kling spoke in front of a packed room of 600 on Wednesday about the city’s ongoing projects and challenges in the face of continued growth.
Kling said a survey of 2,700 people showed residents are concerned about affordable housing, and congestion, while their top priority is funding for the police, fire and EMTs and revitalizing downtown. As Nampa continues to be one of the fastest growing towns in Idaho, Kling said a big challenge was keeping up with infrastructural needs.
“To plan for that growth, we've completed both the highway 16 and the North Nampa area specific plans,” she said. “And while we can't stop growth, we can work diligently to manage it wisely.”
“Nampa needs an additional 14,500 housing units by 2040. I don't believe it's the city's role to provide housing, and we don't have the budget to do so. However, we can be good partners,” she continued.
According to a report from the Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho, Nampa’s population has increased by almost 20% in the last four years.
“Candidly, I think we should have had a trust in place to protect our ag ground years ago. That ground is already sold,” Kling added, alluding to the rapid changes the city and surrounding areas have seen in the last few years. “It's owned by developers today. It may be in farm fields, but much of that ground is already sold. And so when we see the development coming, it isn't something that we can turn around today.”
The mayor also discussed the town’s new wastewater management plant, the re-opening of the Hispanic Cultural Center of Idaho and EPA funded plans to revamp nearby wetlands. She touted the fully staffed police department which will manage a new transportation management system.
“Twenty-two miles of fiber were installed to create connectivity with our traffic signals,” she said. “The new system will improve traffic flow by allowing the staff the ability to remotely manage our signal operations and maintenance, and implement signal timing plans.”
“The City of Nampa cameras do not have facial recognition capability as our cameras or real time crime center was not set up or intended for that,” Kling added. “I will say, due to so many running red lights, many do wish that we had red light cameras, but we are not implementing that, nor the face recognition.”
