Hidden Springs is just another development with very little thought for the climate, plants, animals or anything else that this area has to offer. You could find it and similar homes in Boston, Seattle or Dallas. And this is a desert?

I know that making this a so-called “new town” or some such sham released Hidden Springs from any of Boise’s rules and regs for subdivisions. But at one time, the county had at least token hillside construction rules.

The last few years have seen a constant repudiation of what this development was supposed to have been. Housing has been put into designated open space (did anyone have to go back for permission to change that?); there are few design differences among new houses; there is no attempt to coordinate with previous designs; and they are building in gulches, which sounds just a might dangerous to me.

Oh, and Ray, those all are fine with me. There are only three that would cause me to move elsewhere. (maybe I could get a “neighbor” discount for the strip club)

My Columbo cutie
Popeye punkin’

Sammy Davis
Sandy Duncun

You’re the One Eye
One I love…

I did not mean to offend your delicate sensibilities, sorry if I did. When I write the word “government”, in reference to American government, I mean a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” That is, it’s you, me, and the farmer with the shotgun. This same farmer who would want to shoot us if we, as “government”, told him that he couldn’t use his farm as a nuclear waste depository – or as a residential subdivision, if it wasn’t permitted by land use law.

The farmer still “owns” his farm (or maybe the bank does if it’s under a mortgage), but we (as “government”) are not only obligated to defend his title to his farm – we are also obligated to protect the rights of other property owners who might be harmed by the farmer’s actions if he wants to do something with his property that isn’t permitted.

And, who decides what’s permitted? We do – acting as “government”.

None of this bothers me, nor should it you. But, if our elected (or appointed) representatives actually represent a too narrow constiuency, then we should all be concerned. I don’t want to live in a community ruled by elite special interest groups (be they the Natural Law Party, Green Party, GOP, DNC, Realtors Association, or the North End Neighborhood Association) – even if I might agree with them on a few issues.

Personally, I think letting a relatively small group of appointed P&Z Commissioners decide (or make a recommendation) on a development that might have a county-wide impact is ill advised – especially when Idaho law foresees such a circumstance in high-population centers and permits a larger commission. Idaho law even lets cities and counties join their P&Z Commissions so that everyone’s interests get represented in a “fair and balanced” (love that phrase) deliberation.

“All I’m asking for is man-eating sharks, with frikkin’ laser beams attached to their heads!”
– Dr. Evil

You’d be open minded then, huh? Let the property owners do what they want huh?

Absolutely right and I stand behind you on this but that was not the authors tack. If he had written an article complaining that there were public safety issues and there were violating promises made when they got they’re original approval then I’d be 100% in support of it. Instead the author mentioned those type of concerns in passing and complained about losing his hiking trails and the loss of buried (fossils?) fresh water mollusks. He also mentions a couple of million cubic yards of excavation as no exaggeration. That’s enough to cover 1 square mile 2 feet deep! There was a good article in there somewhere, unfortunately the author chose to pen it as a wide eyed radical instead of a concerned citizen helping to bring something in need of attention to the masses.

The fact is, what we do with our land does have an impact on others in the community. Those up in arms about private property rights are missing the point; this isnt about one homeowner applying for a permit to build a room over their garage or something. This is one person’s actions negatively affecting a whole community. And most of these developers are corporations, NOT individuals, so in a sense, it is NOT about heavy-handed government restricting individual freedom, or taking property. Its about a greedy individual and/or corporation overstepping their bounds, and violating a spoken promise to the community.

There is a saying: Just because you have the “right” to do something, doesnt mean its the right thing to do.