I do like the notion of trying for a regional growth plan, but you make a very good point. Growth doesn’t fall neatly inside arbitrary city or county lines, and for any plan to be truly comprehensive, every city and county official from here to Ontario would have to sign off on it, something that is not actually impossible, but may as well be.

As it stands, we all have different outlooks and priorities and plans signed into law in Boise City or Ada County have no legal weight in Eagle or Canyon County. To add to the problem, a growth plan is, by necessity, a decades-long affair, while the people who write and approve them are voted into and out of office every two or four years. Even if you had a hypothetical plan that pleased fourteen mayors and city councils as well as two county commissions, many of those people would be voted out in a few years time and their replacements would be eager to work on a new and improved plan.

What about fear? Seems to me that fear is what is really driving all of this growth.

The out of staters often speak of, “white flight” as the reason they left California or Texas or Arizona. People are afraid of people with a different color of skin.

The local governments will agree to just about anything out of fear of pissing off the developers which in turn would make the local chambers of commerce angry which in turn would infuriate the Republican party which in turn would lean hard on the commissioners or council members involved. Elected officials are afraid of losing their coveted seats in office.

The fear of looking bad in the eyes of the rest of the country. How many times have we seen that bug-eyed lady on channel 6 or Dee Sarton absolutely gush about how some magazine or another has actually rated the treasure valley for some goofy reason? The more that happens the more everyone else wants to take credit and therefore those same folks want to continue the growth and silly projects like Hidden Springs.

The fight about growth will continue unabated, just like west valley growth.

Sis–
The other commenters seemed to take it the same way I did: it would be hard to get consensus on regional planning goals with the regional politics ideologically split as much as the election results make it appear. Perhaps you were just too involved with the BSU victory with 2 seconds left?

Intelligent fiscal and infrastucture planning for new developments and general building projects should always be a priority for all cities and communities in the Treasure valley. Part of the problem is that the ” economic elite” in each seperate political jurisdiction usually controls the politicians and bureaucrats of the same area , so the people ‘s needs come in last.

Another part of the problem is that each political area in the treasure valley wants to create their own ” kingdom” of larger bureaucracies, and more and better paid politicians at the tax payers expense. The People’s needs here, again, come in last. A third problem is the almost total lack of cooperation between the communities not only in regulating new developments but in providing all the basic living services the people of the area need. Again, the taxpayer loses.

Part of the answer is a lot less government that functions a lot more effectively by cooperating with every other community’s needs in the area and by actually catering to the people. Why ? because every community has the same basic needs. What we don’t need are more well paid politicians and bureaucrats!

I don’t see the problem as planning but execution. A lot of agencies would like to plan more but are not making public announcements because they are afraid private developers will profit. Or agencies are saying they want one thing in the hopes that will result in them getting another – the thing they really want.

For instance, the Meridian School District told a local city council that, yes, they know where they need new elementary schools to support all the growth but they can’t tell anyone. If they point out a plot of land they are eyeing then a developer will come along, snap up that chunk, and raise the price on the school district.

I’ve personally witnessed ACHD play complex, emotional political games just to get cities to play along with their plans. Some day ask Lynne Sedlacek about how ACHD threatened to bulldoze her parent’s farmhouse for a new road just so the City of Eagle would put pressure on a developer to ‘gift’ land to ACHD for the road they really wanted. The game they played was surreal because they kept dragging ‘expert’ after ‘expert’ before the city council to swear that bulldozing the farmhouse was the only viable, cost effective option for the supposed road BUT when you look at the conceptual drawings it was obvious to everyone that the road was a completely ill-conceived.

Now ACHD is playing the same games with the people along Ustick. They are threatening to take land from people on the north side of the street (east of Cole) when the easements and alignment on the south side of the street make taking that land more reasonable. What does ACHD want? Why are they putting pressure there? We don’t know and we won’t until their little game is played. Unfortunately, it is those games that are played all over the valley so nothing is getting done.

Just look at all the issues in this valley that SHOULD get done and should have been done a long time ago and you’ll find some political reason why we haven’t gotten on the ball yet. Make a real Highway 55 from Highway 84 north? Not done. Connect Highway 16 over the river? Heck, consider ANY river crossing! Not done. Pave Dry Creek Road from Highway 55 to Downtown? Obviously not done because there are too many wealthy homeowners back there who don’t want to be ‘discovered’ (or rather, inconvenienced by increased traffic). Put a by-pass freeway south of Highway 84 for alternate access to the airport? I’ll be old in the grave before that is done. Same goes for a real highway to the northern part of the state. Think of all the schools that are not being built. Think of all the hospitals, fire stations, police stations and libraries that fall into a black hole and they all didn’t happen because they weren’t planned. They didn’t happen because few people in our government have the gumption to get it done.

I was on Ada county planing and zoning in 1996, when Hidden Springs was approved, quite a marketing job it was from Bill Clark hired by the developer. We heard about the many features that would be provided, some were–many weren’t. I left Idaho ten years ago, I often return, but would not consider, Idaho as a permanent address again. The quality of life has considerably deteriorated, with planning nearly non-existent, highways, public transportation, schools, parks and rec departments needing adequate funding.

My experience indicated county planning and zoning was a rubber stamp for whomever wanted to bring in the next “bright idea”. Home rule would provide many of the answers to the questions about communties deciding what should be done. Every state west of the Mississippi river except Arkansas subscribes to this this theory, though not perfect, it works better than the current arrangement in play in your area.