The City of Boise has long recognized the importance of neighborhoods and their place in culture, arts, education and the goals we’ve created for livability, sustainability and wise use planning. The North End Neighborhood Association is Boise’s first organized neighborhood association. Founded in the mid-seventies during a dramatic downturn in the areas fortunes, many of our old homes were being turned into multi-unit apartment houses. This single issue brought our neighbors together with a common cause. As a result planning rules were implemented to stop the practice and efforts started to create the North End Historic District.
Reinvestment Grant (NRG)
One of the outgrowths of the emphasis on neighborhoods is the Neighborhood Reinvestment Grant (NRG) program. It is a partnership between the City of Boise and the city’s registered neighborhood associations like NENA.
The program funds comprehensive neighborhood plans and capital construction projects to help enrich the lives of our citizens, enhance the identity and quality of life in our neighborhoods and encourage a strong sense of community. The program also funds mini-grants to support neighborhood communication and community-building.
NENA supplements NRG grants through the FINE program, which is funded through revenues from the Hyde Park Street Fair. For more about FINE grants visit the NENA website by clicking here.
Other City and County wide resources of interest include the following initiatives:
Historic Preservation
Boise residents of every age are showing a new appreciation for their built heritage. In 2010 the National Trust profiled the work of Doug StanWiens and his students at Boise’s Timberline High School with weekly blog posts through the Boise Architecture Project and Remnants of Boise. The Boise Architecture Project has apparently merged with the Idaho Architecture Project (bummer) and can be found here.
For most homeowners, living in an historic district has little impact on the use and improvement of their property. Under State and local law, property owners must secure a Certificate of Appropriateness for external alterations to houses and structures.
Visit the City of Boise Historic Preservation pages for details by clicking here.