McMillan Library Branch? + New Interactive Map

If you’ve been paying attention to the news, you know that West Ada School officials are considering closing McMillan elementary school due to maintenance costs and declining enrollment.

A number of people have reached out to me wondering if this could be a good site for a West Boise library.

My reply has been no, it’s too far to the east, too far north, and I don’t see how the school district could consider selling the property to Boise for a library when it’s far larger than what you need for a library. However, Boise could do more with the property than a library. Boise has pursued and developed various affordable housing projects over the last decade. If you were to combine the two, you could see a cost effective development taking place.

To better answer the question about location, I’ve created an interactive map. It allows you to place a new library (or libraries), pull in census data, and see how many residents are closest to that location.

What I found surprised me: yes, a library on Cloverdale would technically reach more Boise residents, and in particular more non-Boise residents, but the numbers are close. The combined Boise residents served by Cole & Ustick + McMillan is 60,587; the combined Boise residents served by Cole & Ustick + Cloverdale is 62,801.

It’s worth pursuing, at least looking into this, to see if there’s a real possibility.