County
Avimor Moves Closer
November 14, 2005 
Avimor, the planned community which will eventually eat up 26,000 acres of Spring Valley Ranch in parts of three counties, obtained Ada County Planning and Zoning Commission approval last week.
At the public hearing a lone supporter testified in favor of the subdivision which will include 685 houses and 75,000 square feet of commercial structures. Four other citizens protested the development.
The GUARDIAN has been wrestling with how to “follow the money” on this and many other projects. The parent company in this real estate project is Arizona based SunCor Development.
We have been able to confirm that SunCor has made a donation to a political PAC called “Idaho PAC.” The Idaho PAC shows up on various campaign reports, but so far it is impossible to make a direct link between the payoff and who receives it.
That said, we note on public records that SunCor paid $1,000 to Idaho PAC a year ago and Idaho PAC paid Ada Commissioner Rick Yzaguirre $1,000 within a couple of weeks. No way to prove a link, but we note these “pass throughs” are totally legal under current law and serve to distance “buyer from seller.”
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Nov 14, 2005, 12:22 pm
Perhaps some of your readers will remember some months ago when a member of the SunCor group wrote an editorial which appeared in the Statesman. That person editorialized that Treasure Valley residents need to learn to conserve water. As a long time resident of this area – from 1947 – I resent having that kind of admonishment from someone who is seeking to ship thousands more residents to the area in order to fatten his own wallet.
As for the possibility that Commish Yzaguirre might get financing from that group – it has already been established that he is financially unethical, and I can’t see how anyone could argue otherwise.
We give this area five years or less before it becomes unlivable, so we are looking for other opportunities.
Nov 14, 2005, 12:35 pm
Jon Mason commented on another post that roads cause sprawl. This is a case where the road is a two lane highway without stop lights or turn lanes, except at a golf course and passing lanes on the grades. But regardless sprawl is “happening”. I think roads don’t cause sprawl. Commissioners, on the other hand, apparently do.
Nov 14, 2005, 4:37 pm
Enough money will buy just about any person, place or thing.
Ed note–Jack, those are called nouns!
Nov 16, 2005, 1:21 pm
Looks like Ada County Planning and Zoning is a clone of the Boise City Planning Department – – the promise of more tax revenue rules the day regardless of any impacts or public input.
Nov 17, 2005, 10:35 pm
P&Z approving Avimor is one more sign the fox is guarding the hen house. Guess who is going to pay for widening 55, adding overpasses and underpasses later, and cleaning up after this substandard plan. Yep, you and me. Am I the only Idahoan tired of subsidizing out of state developers???