NEWS SHORTS

MAKE THAT 30 STORIES

Maybe they're making up for the hole. Gary Rogers, the new developer of what was once known as the Boise Tower on 8th Street between Idaho and Main, now wants the new building to be even taller.

Originally, Rogers told city officials and the media he hoped to make the new tower about 25 stories high. Well, things change. Now, the founder of Charterhouse Boise Downtown Properties LLC thinks the building might go to 30 stories.

"We've had to go back and redesign the building entirely," Rogers told a recent meeting of the Capital City Development Corporation. "There is the possibility that we may exceed 25 stories, possibly up to as many as 30."

Prospects of a new skyscraper sent eyebrows skyward as well.

"That's, to me, kind of an alarming increase," said City Councilor Alan Shealy, who sits on the board of CCDC. He worried that a new 30-story skyscraper might inspire an architectural build-off.

"The game of one-upmanship tends to take hold," Shealy said. "I would hate to see a bunch of skyscrapers dominate the Boise skyline."

Although the CCDC's urban renewal guidelines restrict buildings to a 20-story height, city ordinances, oddly, do not restrict developers to a height limit.

"In my opinion, if you're going to have very tall buildings in downtown Boise, that's where you'd have it," said Bruce Chatterton, Boise's director of Planning and Development Services. He added that he had yet to see the latest plans for the tower.

Rogers told Shealy that he doubted his building's height would inspire copycat designs on Boise's skyline.

"We'll bring you a design that you'll like," he said.

Meanwhile, Rogers is asking for volunteers to help him remove the massive banner sign that's hanging off a neighboring building, announcing the former design known as the Boise Towers. Getting a crane to remove the sign, Rogers said, was proving to be too expensive. One alternative, he said, was to get a crew to rappel down the side of the building and remove the banner by hand.

"I'm so anxious to get that sign down, I'd be ready to go over the edge," said CCDC commissioner John May.

OLD SPAGHETTI FACTORY HEADS FOR BOISE

Downtown Boise is about to get another chain restaurant. The Old Spaghetti Factory has its sights set on the old Capitol Lithograph building on Idaho Street, between 6th Street and Capitol Boulevard. That would plunk a nationwide chain of Italian restaurants next to a downtown Boise fixture: Louie's Pizza and Italian Restaurant. See a problem here? If Louie's owner Chris Mallane does, he's not talking about it.

"I don't care who goes next to us," Mallane told BW. But he did take the time to write the Capital City Development Corporation telling them that he wanted no part in helping to fund a sidewalk redevelopment the group is contemplating on the block. The owners of the Capitol Lithograph building, working with the Spaghetti Factory, intend to pretty up the sidewalk, erasing four parking spaces but creating outdoor dining space. So why did Mallane want out?

"We can speculate that he's concerned about competition as a result of this tenant," CCDC project manager Mike Hall told the board. "CCDC, I don't think, is in the business of regulating competition."

To help offset the estimated $130,000 it would take to change the sidewalk, the CCDC is planning to offer a no-interest loan to the developers to the tune of $48,000, due back to CCDC when the project is complete. With prodding from Mike Dolby, representing Capitol Lithograph, the commission opted to go ahead with the loan, removing Louie's Pizza from the agreement to develop the sidewalk. Only City Councilor David Eberle voted against going forward but, he said, not because he did not support the project.

"(Old Spaghetti Factory's) design needs this," Dolby said. "Will Louie's Restaurant benefit from this? Absolutely. If this is prevention of competition, this is not the forum for that."

A LAME DUCK SESSION?

If Gov. Jim Risch goes ahead and calls a special session to chat up property taxes, he'll be calling back several lawmakers who've already said they're done with the place. That includes the retiring leaders of both the House and Senate tax committees, Sen. Hal Bunderson of Meridian and Rep. Dolores Crow of Nampa. Both Republicans are done, but if Risch calls, they'd be back, along with House Speaker Bruce Newcomb, a Burley Republican who also has said he is retiring.

"They're lame ducks. They're not going to be held accountable," said House Minority Leader Wendy Jaquet of Ketchum. "It's one thing to come home from the session and be accountable. It's not very appropriate."

But into the void of property tax debates, Keith Allred sees opportunity. The director of The Common Interest scored a few points last session with ideas on open meetings and tax policy, and is hoping to do so again if Risch calls a session.

Having a few lame ducks, Allred said, creates "an unusual dynamic." He's hoping they might consider two ideas for reducing property taxes and helping maintain funding for schools. First, he said, lawmakers could create a county-specific property-tax index that could be used to create homeowners exemptions county by county, instead of a statewide rate that averages home values from booming counties along with ones that are not experiencing the same fast growth rate. That way, Allred said, individual counties who are experiencing vastly different rates of growth could maintain their own tailored tax exemptions and avoid the ups or downs created by a statewide index. The other option, he said, would be to go ahead and run with the idea of using the state's current budget surplus for a one-time fix, something even Risch has said might come up.

"I'm out there, sowing seeds of these alternatives," Allred said. Either fix, he said, could be managed in a couple of days in the Statehouse, lame ducks or no.

GAY PRIDE PROTESTER: OUCH

Raymond Rodriguez might have expected some feedback. When he showed up at the Boise Gay Pride parade carrying a sign that read "Homosexuality is an abomination," he was not, as you might imagine, the most popular guy on the block. But now he's filed a report with the Boise Police Department because he said he was attacked by gay-rights supporters who thought his presence was, to say the least, inappropriate.

Rodriguez, who is a regular fixture outside Planned Parenthood (BW, News, "The Sign People, " March 24) said he was "hit, spit on, and attacked with metal crutches."

"People actually wanted to hurt us," Rodriguez, 21, said. The "us" refers to his brother and father, who also held signs reading "America needs to repent" and "Gay is unnatural." Without a suspect identified, BPD spokeswoman Lynn Hightower said there wasn't much for officers to go on. Rodriguez said that although gay-rights supporters asked that he be arrested for disrupting a peaceful event, he agreed to leave.

More than 700 people rallied downtown last weekend in what was otherwise a more-than-successful show of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Idahoans.

war in Iraq

U.S. CASUALTIES: As of Tuesday, June 13, 2,498 U.S. service members (including 14 Idahoans) have died since the war in Iraq began in March 2003: 1,970 in combat and 528 from non-combat related incidents and accidents. Injured service members total 9,989. In the last week, 16 U.S. soldiers died.

Since President George W. Bush declared "mission accomplished" aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003, 2,352 soldiers have died.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Defense

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS: Estimated between 38,355 and 42,747.

Source: www.iraqbodycount.net

COST OF IRAQ WAR: $288,176,856,204

Source: www.costofwar.com

-Shea Andersen