A movie theater could be built in McCall under conceptual plans approved on Thursday night by the McCall City Council.
The theater would be built as part of the second phase of development in Broken Ridge Commons, a 72-townhome development on 11 acres at the corner of Boydstun Street and West Valley Road.
Plans show that a coffee shop, CrossFit and yoga gym, four live-work townhomes, an 11,000-square-foot storage facility and 12 residential townhomes would also be built on about 3.6 acres surrounding the existing townhomes.
The work could be completed by 2027, according to materials submitted by Resolute Land Holdings LLC, a Garden City company registered to Jeanette Newbold, who was represented at Thursday’s public hearing by Alex Sawyer.
Sawyer told Valley Lookout on Friday afternoon that he hopes to begin construction this fall.
The conceptual plans for phase two were approved by the city council, but formal plans still must be approved by the McCall Area Planning and Zoning Commission and the city council.
2019 plans revived
Similar plans for Broken Ridge’s second phase were approved by the city in 2019, but that approval expired in 2021.
“COVID-19 lockdowns and their associated effects on workforce, bank financing, investment partnerships, and the feasibility of the proposed commercial uses have just, within the last year, reached a level of normalcy in development risk,” Sawyer said in an application to re-entitle the project.
The project remains similar to plans approved in 2019, but with a smaller movie theater and larger townhomes that would not include rooftop terraces.
“Just making sure that people have places to put things, to store things, I think is important,” Sawyer said.
The current proposal also does not include a brewery or distillery. Instead, a dining room would be built into the theater, which would function as a 4,000-square-foot multi-purpose space.
The single-screen theater would include a small commercial kitchen and a bar. It would likely be open during the early evening hours, especially on weekends, the application said.
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This phase of work would complete the buildout for Broken Ridge Commons, which was originally envisioned as a “village atmosphere” across the 11 acres. The 72 existing townhomes were built about five years ago.
Expanded intersection
The developer would be required to add turn lanes at the intersection of Boydstun Street and West Valley Road before the complete buildout of phase two, according to a traffic study by the Idaho Transportation Department.
Boydstun Street would be widened to add a left turn lane onto West Valley Road, which would be expanded for left and right turn lanes onto Boydstun.
At full buildout, the traffic study estimates Broken Ridge Commons would generate about 1,389 vehicle trips per day, including about 130 trips during the peak morning and evening commute hours. About 60% would turn left onto Boydstun Street, with the other 40% turning right toward Deinhard Lane.
Bypass negotiations unaffected
The project would not affect negotiations between the city and ITD on making the Deinhard Boydstun Connector route an official Idaho 55 bypass of McCall, City and Sustainability Planner Meredith Todd said.
“The purpose of doing the traffic impact study in detail and involving ITD on that for this project was based on the possibility of the swap happening,” Todd said.
In 2023, the city and ITD were awarded a $2.9 million federal grant to expand on previous studies of improvements needed along each roadway before the agencies can swap ownership of the roads to formally create the bypass. That study is ongoing.
