The Canyon County Planning and Zoning Commission has endorsed a proposal to develop large-lot homes on 108 acres of farmland between Caldwell and Nampa, Idaho.

Epic Holdings LLC envisions the project on the south side of U.S. 20-26 and on both sides of Northside Boulevard.

The proposed comprehensive-plan amendment would change the future land-use designation from agricultural to residential. The request includes rezoning 98 acres to residential with a 1-acre average minimum lot size, conditioned on a development agreement that caps the total number of lots at 48 and increases the amount of open space. Epic seeks to rezone an additional 10 acres to allow 2-acre lots.

County planning staff recommends denial of the proposal, which the Board of Canyon County Commissioners likely will consider in mid-November.

More than 340 acres of agricultural land is adjacent to the property. Dairy and seed operations are nearby.

County planners’ staff report said the request “removes prime farmland (from) production and promotes residential development within an area not anticipated to support residential development at this time.”

Epic, whose property lies within the City of Caldwell impact area, says the project would in part serve as a buffer between agricultural and eventual high-density uses. Caldwell says it doesn’t fit the city’s long-term plan for higher-density residential uses there.

“Staff’s opposition is that it’s premature development and would encourage rural density within an area slated for higher density in the future,” Dan Lister, a county planner, said.

The county in updating its long-range comprehensive plan aims to preserve farmland. Lister said where farmland is in a city impact area, county and City of Caldwell long-range plans call for keeping it agricultural until city services — now 1.5 miles away — can accommodate higher densities. That isn’t expected to happen soon.

Epic representative Todd Lakey wrote to county planning officials that the proposal meets requirements of the zoning ordinance and generally is in accordance with the comprehensive plan.

Residential and commercial growth is planned for the area, he wrote. Demand remains strong for larger residential parcels, which here would be “compatible with the planned character of the area and the agricultural operations.”

The development would provide “a transition from higher-density city development and any remaining agricultural operations,” Lakey wrote. “This is an impact area where continued agricultural operations are not the focus or priority; however, the people that buy these lots in this location know that there are ag operations still occurring in the area.”

The proposal would achieve a land-use balance by providing larger-parcel residential uses “in the impact area where growth is the goal and not out in the county where growth is not the priority,” he wrote. Right-to-farm language would be included on the recorded plat and in covenants, conditions and restrictions.

Epic would use individual well and septic systems in accordance with findings of a nitrate study and Southwest District Health Department requirements, Lakey wrote.