EDITOR NOTE–Yes.

EDITOR NOTE–Todd, the short version is that they are not meeting to “deliberate” anything on which they will have to make a “decision .” The meeting itself is legal, but getting information from one side of a matter they are likely to have to decide or is pending becomes “ex parte” communication and it is inappropriate.

Just look at Hidden Springs for example – one way in and one way out – a two lane road which between Hill Road and the dump is dominated by speeding garbage trucks. I’d like to know the actual number of auto trips that are generated each day from Hidden Springs into the rest of the valley.

Then we will see another mess with Avimor loading Highway 55 – I expect it will become another Eagle Road, which I refuse to drive on.

EDITOR NOTE–For all practical purposes it is a way around a law that sets minimum size of lots at several acres outside a city. By creating their own “community” with sewer, water, and streets, developers are able to leapfrog their subdivisions. Hidden Springs is no longer a planned community–that was just to get approval.

Let there be no mistake, this was a conference whose need was, and continues to be paramount. The ramifications of all these communities are every bit as significant as the Atlanta Gold Mine that was the subject of Mayor Bieter’s recent town hall meeting.

The Atlanta gold mine presents the possibility of pollution in the Boise River. Growth in general, and many of these planned communities in particular, promise, with absolute certainty, to affect traffic congestion, air pollutions, water (quality, price, and availability), school placement and funding, property taxes, local option sales taxes, mass transit and a host of other issues.

To that end, the Chamber gets bonus points for holding the conference. They also get them taken away for holding it in Sun Valley. This was a meeting that should have been held in one of the valley’s major auditoriums, with the lights of the media shining in, and ready access granted to the general public.

In my mind, the Guardian could have made a much bigger case about the backbeat of frustration, even anger and disgust, with which the development community views the local regulatory matrix. Every city and every county has its own comp plan. They compete with each other, openly and not so openly, on a variety of levels. The rules are, at best, amorphous and subjective. Enforcement is, at best, illogical and inconsistent. Businesses, developers, and ordinary citizens are all victimized by this situation.

The easiest way to get heads nodding in agreement at this gig was to state the obvious. Namely, the valley needs a good, consistent, region wide, comprehensive plan. It needs to be as detailed as possible. It needs to be rolled deeply into the code of all the various cities and counties. It needs to be rigidly, consistently, and impartially enforced.

And, it needs to happen soon.

Businesses, developers, and regular citizens all want it to happen. November would be about right.

Last November 2 out of every 3 county commissioners who represented the status quo lost their jobs. For the politicians who can read, that is about as clear a message as I have seen.

I notice most of the writers have fallen under the spell of the developers on at least one point: saying they build “homes.”

Nope; they build houses … or condos or apartment buildings or trailer parks or whatever. None of those things are “homes” until someone moves into them and gradually turns them into homes.
As the old saying goes, “It takes a heap of livin’ to make a house a home.”

You may also have noticed that, while sometimes “used cars” are for sale, you’ll never see real estate folks advertise “used houses” or “used homes.” (They say, “preowned” — perhaps hoping you won’t notice that means the place actually has been used before.

An aside: I liked a sign I saw on a auto lot somewhere out toward Weiser or somesuch one time. It advertised “experienced cars.”

So, writers, tell it like it is: Developers want to build a zillion (or however many” more houses (which they hope people will buy, which, if they do, many will turn into “homes.”)

EDITOR NOTE–Yes. The correspondent was one of the 210 paying customers, but has asked for anonymity. Reprisals can be costly. If you have any FACTUAL questions please let us know. We are trying to confirm if Eagle’s mayor got the pitch from M3. If you can help, please do. There is no mug shot on the Eagle official website for the reporter to reference.