City Government

Bridge Opens Gate To Development

The East Park Center bridge across the Boise River is about the only thing that stands between wildlife habitat on private ranch land and a mega subdivision with houses, shops, hotels and meeting facilities.
Harris%20Ranch%20Aerial.jpg
BRIDGE WILL FACILITATE MORE HOUSES LIKE THOSE ABOVE IN HARRIS RANCH.
The bridge has been a condition for the Harris Ranch developers who originally agreed to pay for the structure after folks on Warm Springs complained about the increased traffic in their neighborhood. At one point it was a done deal, but now the price has jumped from $9 million to $21 million.

Boise City officials have placed the bridge construction on the top of their priority list to the Ada County Highway District. While espousing limited growth, smart growth, blueprint for growth–it all translates to GROWTH.

The net result will be thousands of houses and more people to fill them. Of course that means more traffic, schools, fire stations and less wildlife habitat in the Barber Valley east of Boise.

Any way you cut it, the public is getting billed to facilitate development. Business as usual.

UPDATE 5/18/07
Sources within the ACHD claim much of the bridge cost will be funded by impact fees on the houses. Of course to collect those fees, the houses have to be built. That means ACHD gets full benefit only if every single lot is filled with a house. Even so, it is estimated $6 million will be paid by other property owners…fewer houses than planned means higher percentage paid by the rest of us.

Comments & Discussion

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  1. “Any way you cut it, the public is getting billed to facilitate development.”….Um, Yeah. Those are called taxes. They have been around for a while now (the better part of three thousand years in one way or another). When we as citizens decide to live somewhere we make a compact with the local society to pay our way and do our part to help civilization keep running. If you decide that the cost of participating in that society is too great, then you are free to leave.

    Dave, I’m all for your efforts to get the Depot open and know that some of your causes are quite worthy, but in this I have a hard time seeing your efforts here as anything but nitpicking.

    EDITOR NOTE–Those guys originally promised to buy the bridge in order to get council approval. They backed out midstream (pun intended) and now we ALL pay so they can develop. Without the bridge, no houses.

  2. Clippityclop
    May 17, 2007, 10:55 am

    Please correct me if I’m wrong, but subsidizing this bridge for the developer will cost every resident of Ada County approximately $170… It seems to me that there are more pressing traffic concerns in the County which merit $20 million dollars to provide current residents relief. I’ll bet congested folks in the southwest County will agree. Ponying up for the Parkcenter Bridge is a very poor precedent. Where will you draw the line re: demanding that development pay for itself? This should not be an exception, and needs to be rethought.

  3. The bridge will not solve the traffic problems on Warm Springs Avenue. The bridge will create traffic problems on Park Center. The bridge is a subsidy of the Harris Ranch developers. I would rather not help the developer make money. Harris Ranch’s growth combined with the new East Junior High School insures the end of that area as a rural, semi wild habitat.

    Building new roads and new bridges will not cure traffic problems when the population keeps growning. At some point we will run out land to build roads and parking lots. Shall we wait until everything is paved over before figuring out what “smarth growth” really means?

  4. Guardian, I think you just hate America. Whatever progress is happening in Boise is not happening in Iraq. Why don’t you just move to Iraq. As far as wildlife, God gave them four legs, not two like us, so they can just get out of the way faster.

  5. Let me first disclose why I am 100% against this bridge. 15% because I live near parkcenter blvd and do not want increased traffic by my home, and 85% because this a typical example of how citizens subsidize developers, and how eager politicians bend to every opportunity to increase their tax base and pander to wealthy developers.

    This $21M bridge will go through a habitat so sensitive I am not allowed to ride my bike through it, yet when money is to be made, they will rip through with a 5 lane psuedo-highway.

    I would encorage people to attend the meeting or send comments in advance and encourage our elected leaders to just say no.

  6. People buying houses in the Harris Ranch development might benefit from researching what happened to that area when it rained hard in the foothills in the summer of 1959.

  7. Dave… I clearly remember that the developer was going to pay for the new East bridge. (How is it that such agreements can be so easily “weaseled” out of at a later date? Didn’t ACHD get a signed copy? Who’s representing the taxpayers?!!?)

    Last weekend I rode my motorsickle through Baker, Oregon (and many quaint little hamlets in between here and there). I thought to myself, “This looks like a nice place to live, and it has pretty much everything I would need.” Although I was born in Boise, and have lived here my whole life, maybe at this point I’m a Baker guy living in L.A.-junior. If it weren’t for my need for gainful employment, I could very realistically be looking for (literally) greener pastures.

    It’s extremely frustrating. While I’m generally very conservative, and AS A RULE respect the property owner’s right to do what he wants with his land… there is no denying that we affect each others’ quality of life with our land-use choices.

    That’s why we don’t have a pig farm just upwind. Or a coal-fired or gas-fired power plant looming on the horizon.

    If a multi-generation farming family sells their spearmint field and a week later the mint is being plowed under to make way for more crackerboxes… it has an impact on everybody who has enjoyed the heavenly scent of that spearmint as they’ve gone by. How do you assign a value to that, or determine the proper “impact fee”?

    All our current crop of “elected representatives” have campaigned on “sensible growth” platforms, I’m guessing. If what we are seeing under their watch is “sensible growth,” I’m probably ready to vote for some ANTI-GROWTH candidates… not because I believe growth can or should be stopped, but because “sensible growth” ain’t makin’ it for me.

    Okay… I’ll relinquish the soapbox for now.

  8. Nice picture Dave. Guess you took it while you were hobnobbing on the helicopter.

    No wonder you didn’t see the cows. Your head was in the clouds…. Maybe next time ride your bike and see the problems with the sewage lagoons and the traffic that comes to Shakespeare in our area.

    Oh I’m sorry I forgot, I’m not suppost to talk about all the traffic, and sewage that the artsey folks generate when they come out to our neck of the woods… or all the trips floating down the river or trips to Sun Valley, or the trips to Idaho City….

    The sooner the bridge goes in the happier us poor folks in Golden Dawn will be. We won’t have to drive on the rich folks road on Warm Springs.

  9. I will not try to speak for anyone outside of my circle of family and friends. When we chose to STAY in Idaho, our birthplace, we did not anticipate, or want the raBid growth this area has suffered. One reliable source is quoted as saying we have been invaded to the tune of a forty percent population increase in JUST THE LAST FIFTEEN YEARS.
    Now if we WANTED and APPROVED of all these refugees crowding us and changing our way of life, MAYBE, just MAYBE we would be more receptive to subsidizing them and their carpetbagging developers. “They” keep changing the rules, and taxing (sticking it to) us in our home state. I would like to voluntarily choose my charitable contributions without having our local big brother extort my “contributions.”
    To follow the logic of some newbies, the holocaust, (IF it occurred at all) must have been the fault of the Jewish victims. If Idaho’s developers, HOUSE builders and politicians are well meaning innocents, Hitler and his Nazis were too. The Nazis also called their attempted extermination of entire races “progress.”
    I would rather see my taxes raised again to subsidize Micron a bit MORE so they can move lock stock and tea kettle to communist China sooner.
    Jon, thank you for granting me PERMISSION to leave my birthplace. Were you born into royalty, divintiy or do you just suffer from delusions of grandeur?
    Dog: Wildlife? We don’t need no stinking wildlife> That’s what we have zoos and city parks for, eh?

  10. I certainly agree with some of the opinions expressed above; the amount of power and influence developers have is ridiculous. The fact that they’re in bed with the Ada County Commissioners – and especially Yzaguirre – is absurd. But that Boiseans have taken a blind eye to all of this is tragic.

    We have the power to control this growth. Start speaking up, speaking out. Quit electing officials according to party lines. Quit buying into this notion that growth = good. Quit supporting these crooks.

  11. Consider yourself either ten years too late on this issue because that’s when the land was annexed into Boise, or 20 years too late because that’s when Parkcenter Blvd. was built out towards the river making a bridge there a done deal sooner or later.

    I look forward to seeing a little relief on the Warm Springs Ave. traffic. And given that ACHD has spent $50 million in Boise residents’ taxes on projects outside of Boise over the past eight years I think $20 million is a fine start at payback. As for the sensitive wildlife habitat north of the river, folks that was a sawmill until just a few years ago.

  12. I’m a retired person and have time to follow these issues, but I remember when I was employed and also had children and elderly parents to look after. It is tough for the middle aged people to stay in touch with the important activities that effect our community. The developers and PR people who push the politicians to approve the various projects don’t get much resistance. I barely knew who was running for office when I was in my 40’s. I have no children living in Idaho but I still want this place to be a good place to live for following generations. To think otherwise is seriously selfish.

    I would like to think that the planners who promote growth projects are thinking about the children and grandchildren coming up and if the projects will be an improvement to the overall community.

  13. If you want to blame anyone for the taxpayer’s cost on this bridge, you must blame ACHD.

    Harris Ranch was supposed to pay for this bridge 10 years ago. They would be reimbursed by the impact fees paid to ACHD over time for each house. There was an agreement to that effect, However, I do believe that the ACHD, in their perfidy and incompetence never executed it. Harris Ranch got frustrated due to all the jerking around by ACHD and pulled out until recently.

    Consequently the bridge did not get built for 6-9 million and now the costs have escalated by 3. (If anyone thinks the end price will be $21 million, I have a bridge I can sell you.)

    That bridge has been anticipated for over 30 years. That’s why Parkcenter is sized the way it is.

    What we should all be asking ourselves is why do we have the ACHD? It builds roads no one wants, doesn’t build roads that are needed and in general treats citizens like scum through it’s 5 spokesmouths that we are paying for while our so called elected commissioners hide away in the corner.

    There is a ULI project happening in June or July (we’re paying for that too) and the only groups ACHD wants them to speak with are other government groups, developers and other business interests.

    Make your voices heard. Call ACHD and tell them you want to see more broad representation. There is a reason that ACHD is the only county wide highway district in the world. It’s because when others have visited to see how it operates, they see it DOESN’T work and that’s why it’s never been duplicated. Sure there would be problems without ACHD but how can they be worse?

  14. If you want to blame anyone for the taxpayer’s cost on this bridge, you must blame ACHD.

    Harris Ranch was supposed to pay for this bridge 10 years ago. They would be reimbursed by the impact fees paid to ACHD over time for each house. There was an agreement to that effect, However, I do believe that the ACHD, in their perfidy and incompetence never executed it. Harris Ranch got frustrated due to all the jerking around by ACHD and pulled out until recently.

    Consequently the bridge did not get built for 6-9 million and now the costs have escalated by 3. (If anyone thinks the end price will be $21 million, I have a bridge I can sell you.)

    That bridge has been anticipated for over 30 years. That’s why Parkcenter is sized the way it is.

    What we should all be asking ourselves is why do we have the ACHD? It builds roads no one wants, doesn’t build roads that are needed and in general treats citizens like scum through it’s 5 spokesmouths that we are paying for while our so called elected commissioners hide away in the corner.

    There is a ULI project happening in June or July (we’re paying for that too) and the only groups ACHD wants them to speak with are other government groups, developers and other business interests.

    Make your voices heard. Call ACHD and tell them you want to see more broad representation. There is a reason that ACHD is the only county wide highway district in the world. It’s because when others have visited to see how it operates, they see it DOESN’T work and that’s why it’s never been duplicated. Sure there would be problems without ACHD but how can they be worse?

  15. Scott?

    That is a little like those folks with river front property in Eagle, that didn’t want to be “too close” to the river; isn’t it?

  16. Rod in SE Boise
    May 18, 2007, 9:32 am

    Whether this East Parkcenter Bridge fiasco began 20 years ago, 30 years ago, or 500 years ago, its sole puprose is to placate a very few wealthy residents of Warm Springs Avenue. Why else would traffic from Harris Ranch be routed from the north side of the river across the East Parkcenter bridge to the south side of the river, then back across the river across the West Parkcenter bridge?

    Government at all levels exists for the benefit of the rich and at the expense of the middle class. It’s as simple as that.

  17. 30 years ago, highway 21 ran on the north side of the Boise River from the center of Boise to Lucky Peak Reservoir, toward Idaho City and beyond. That meant all the traffic from this corner of the state heading to and from central Idaho traveled on Warm Springs Ave. When the Parkcenter Development, and Parkcenter Blvd were put in, it made sense to think about rerouting Hwy 21 onto Parkcenter, and putting in the East Parkcenter Bridge (EPB) to take some of the load off urban Warm Springs.

    Then Micron Happened. Federal Way was buffed out to 4/5 lanes south to Gowen. Gowen was extended east to the Boise River near diversion dam where a new bridge was installed across the Boise River. With that, the improved east west Highway 21 corridor around urban Warm Springs was completed. And, the need for the EPB as an integral part of the east west corridor evaporated.

    Now the only purpose of the EPB is to service development in the Barber Valley. In fact, the testimony by Skyline at the Cliffs’ hearing, and Brighton at their neighbor hood meetings, is that they will endeavor, by whatever means, including several “restrictive” roundabouts between Highway 21 and Harris Ranch, to discourage traffic east of Harris Ranch / Brighton from using the Warm Springs east of the proposed bridge. That means that the purpose of the EPB is reduced to servicing Harris Ranch/Brighton and ONLY Harris Ranch/Brighton!

    We are talking about a $21+ million bridge for about 3000 houses. Clippity is right. Every homeowner in Ada County will be charged $170+ to build the EPB. That is a subsidy on the part of Ada County taxpayers of about $6,700 per house in Harris Ranch. Keep in mind that number works backwards as well. By that I mean $6,700 is what the piddling little impact fee would be if the bridge were charged to the 3,000 or so $400,000+ houses planned for Harris Ranch.

    The Mayor, Council, and ACHD may want the east end developed, but the east end does not NEED to be developed. And, given the disasters that permeate the rest of the county’s traffic situation, State, Eagle Road, Meridian’s Core, Amity, Victory, Harrison, 36th, Hill, Franklin, and on and on and on, I am hard pressed to put the EPB at priority number one. Priority 1001 is more like it.

    Then there is the disastrous precedent of ACHD paying for the bridge after Harris Ranch defaulted on their contract to build it with their own funds. Currently, Avimor, M3, Kastera, et al west of Boise have signed a compact offering to pay $130 million to improve infrastructure on Highway 55 in order to move their projects forward. This leads to a couple of questions. Why do they have to pay upfront while Harris Ranch gets a free ride? Or, do M3 and the others have to simply wait a couple of years before ACHD/ITD forgets about the deal, and again puts the screws to their constituents for the growth related infrastructure costs? One way or the other, someone is getting cheated.

    It is time for some serious questions and investigations into this debacle. Here is your assignment. Sometime today, call each of the following numbers and demand to know what they are doing to stop the spending of $170 or more of your money on a project that will benefit very few people.

    ________________________________________________

    John Frandon, ACHD, 387.6110, http://www.achd.ada.id.us/
    Larry Wasden, Idaho State Attorney General, 208 334-2400, www2.state.id.us/ag/
    Dave Bieter, Boise Mayor, 384-4422, http://www.cityofboise.org
    City Council, 384-4410, http://www.cityofboise.org

    Boise Weekly NEWS EDITOR Shea Andersen 344-2055, http://www.boiseweekly.com
    Idaho Statesman, Editor and vice president, Vicki S. Gowler, (208) 377-6403, http://www.idahostatesman.com

    Channel 6, 208-381-6650, http://www.todays6.com
    Channel 7, 321-5614. http://www.ktvb.com
    Channel 2, 489.1264, http://www.2news.tv
    Channel 12, 466.1200, http://www.ktrv.com

  18. I will always believe in my heart that the people who went after Chuck Winder were tied into this development. He was on ACHD when it required the developers to pay for the bridge. They had the most to lose if he was elected mayor. Follow the money.

    At the same time, I think it is a rhetorical mistake to constantly attack growth. Without growth, our local economy would implode. Growth is fuel for the economy.

    EDITOR NOTE–Mr. Bond, growth is also fuel for the foul air that yesterday was TWICE as dirty as Los Angeles air.

  19. Thanks Tony that was insightful as usual. First I want to note my bias, I’ve been working to get the EPB for awhile and I live off Warm Springs near the M&W. But I don’t disagree with all of what you wrote. I do disagree that the need for the east/west route evaporated. Like most things the use has increased even with the highway 21 bridge.

    There’s a tremendous recreational use particularly through the summer months in that direction. The big geographic issue that has been ignored thus far in these comments is the narrow and obnoxious space between the mesa/tablerock and the river making Warm Springs undesirable as the main route. As Sara points out, they made Parkcenter a broad 5 lane roadway because it couldn’t be done cheaply on the other side. Of course that requires the bridges, the first of which was finished about a decade ago.

    But the EPB has been mired in the Harris Ranch debacle in an effort to get the development to pony up some of the cost. Nobody got it in writing though and when Bureau of Rec insisted on 4 different designs at several hundred thousand dollars, Harris Ranch pulled the plug.

    I would also point out that the difference in price cited by the Guardian is also the difference between a two lane and a four lane bridge. One of the most ridiculous aspects of the initial negotiations was that they were only talking the cost associated with a 2 lane bridge which would have been obsolete before it was constructed.

    From someone that rides Warm Springs everyday, the need is there. But I agree that Harris Ranch should be paying alot more than it is to get her done.

  20. The EPB is just another example of the middle class getting fleeced by the “deciders” in the form of increased property taxes to subsidize developers.

    Why, because Joe and Suzy Idaho don’t lick the boots of the deciders like the developers do. As a matter of fact, Joe and Suzy Idaho don’t bother to vote because they are too worried about the latest sale at Wal(Commie star)Mart. Who are the deciders going to listen too?

    The “deciders” tell Joe and Suzy Idaho, the ones willing to vote, they are the defenders of “freedom”. Joe and Suzy keep the “deciders” in power while their middle class jobs get exported to the the deciders new communist friends with the giant cheap labor pool. The promise (myth) of freedom is the currency of political corruption.

    Purple hearts and bronze stars are the new, decider provided, cracker jack prizes for the poor and middle class.

    People are moving to Idaho because it is cheap and the politicians want it that way. Get used to it. More are on their way.

  21. I’m waiting to hear if the Eagle city council gave their stamp of approval to the 20,000 additional residents north of town. The air is already unbreathable and even if the council gets 100% disapproval from people attending meetings or writing in, they will do as they want. If the county commissioners can stop this insanity I wish they would. I considered moving to L.A. 30 years ago and decided I didn’t want bad air and freeway driving as part of my life so I returned to Boise. Now I can’t go outside and breathe and Eagle Road is so screwed up with traffic that I refuse to shop at any store located on it.

    When will the deciders wise up to quality of life issues?

  22. Sisyphus, my compliments, you are correct about the summer/weekend recreational traffic on urban Warm Springs. It is an important issue, but in my mind it is subordinate to the problem of the amount of traffic that uses Warm Springs on week days.

    COMPASS’ traffic counts for Warm Springs make it clear that the bulk of the ever increasing weekday traffic comes from the increasing number of houses in places like El Paseo, Foothills East, Warm Springs Mesa and other density increases adjacent to Warm Springs west of Harris Ranch that the EPB will not benefit. So, on any week day, and all late fall, winter, and early spring, the EPB will do east-enders very little good.

    Worse, if you look at the proposed layout of Harris Ranch, there is a northwest section of about 300 – 500 houses. The traffic from that section will be able to sneak out the “back door”, thus avoiding 2-5 roundabouts, the EPB, and Parkcenter Blvd, by taking the existing Warm Springs into the city. In traffic speak, that means the building of the bridge and subsequent approval of Harris Ranch will put as many as 3,000 – 5,000 additional cars per day on the already overcrowded Warm Springs. East-enders may see that as the lesser of many evils, but it is a substantial further degradation of the current situation. It is a degradation that is not necessary and for which we will all be charged $170+.

    I remain convinced that there are fewer than 3 clear winners in this debacle. ACHD and Boise City could have, and should have required them to cover the cost of the Bridge in return for the go-ahead to develop Harris Ranch.

    Until that is rectified, everyone in the valley, regular citizens, businesses, and other developers alike, should be outraged.

  23. Gee Tony Jones

    I wish I would have given that speech 35 years ago before you and all of the folk out east of me moved in..

    Talk about a NIMBY

  24. Sara, if you need to blame someone, blame yourself! Blame me, The Guardian, dog, sisyphus,Tony Jones, ALL of us! Blame every citizen in the valley! We are ALL guilty of the dreaded “in’s” Indecision, Inaction, and Indifference. It is no one’s fault but our own that we allowed this whole thing to get so screwed up.

    Now, how do we fix it? We get ACTIVELY involved! Make sure that there is citizen representation at the CCDC – ACHD – Council – Commissioners meetings so that this junk can be stopped before it gets so out of hand. When you go to any of the above named public meetings and you see 3-4-5 people there, (and they are only there because their personal ox is being gored).

    You can’t help but understand why the “leaders” think they can do whatever they want. And who should we throw out first? Let’s start with the “idiot” we have for a mayor, and then go to work on ALL THREE of the county commissioners! It’s high time we took this community back. And when we do, the CCDC’s and the ACHD’s and all the rest will fall into line. The REAL crime here is that we have a mayor’s race and city council races coming in November and we will be lucky if 20% of us show up at the polls!

  25. Jr:

    Your BoCC opinion was incontrovertibly true before Paul Woods was elected (saving us from yet more havoc and even higher taxes had the Queen continued to reign). Woods is a proponent of growth paying for itself, instead of developers dumping the infrastructure bill on us, and has voted that way in the few instances which have come up since January.

    Yzaguirre is running again and I expect we all remember he just squeaked by Wilson…which leads me to endorse your second point. People need to speak up. Particularly since Y has to run again and needs every vote, he’s likely to be more responsive on everything, at least pre-election. (I have acquaintances who think that since they’re Boise residents they can’t vote in BoCC elections…for real.)

  26. Treva,

    Eagle P&Z held off making a decision on its Foothills comp plan changes until June 11. After that, giving the okay to 20,000 “units” (to start!! “bonus” units can be added to that) in the North Foothills will go to the City Council. I’m 99% sure they’ll approve the plan, even though everyone who spoke at the P&Z meeting EXCEPT M3 and Suncor developers didn’t like it. And one landowner’s attorneys admitted that they didn’t like the plan because they want MORE density!

    How many hundreds of thousands has been spent on Blueprint for Good Growth and COMPASS in order to get the cities and county to agree on where, when and how growth SHOULD occur in this valley? How long will it take for Eagle to kick sand in the faces of all their fellow Blueprint counterparts by deciding to annex the North Foothills into their city and give a thumbs up to huge developers? Blueprint, RIP.

  27. I have skimmed through all of the comments above and have determined that the narrow section of Warm Springs will NOT be closed when the East Park Center Bridge is complete, thus allowing traffic to go through to East Boise via Warm Springs Blvd. Is this true? My friend is considering the purchase of a home that backs up to Park Center Blvd. The traffic noise and pollution is a concern to him. There was a time when the plan was to close the narrow section of Warm Springs permanently and reroute the Harris Ranch traffic over the new East Parkcenter bridge to the blvd. to reduce the traffic on historic Warm Springs Blvd.

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