Growth
Bulging Boise’s Bungled Building Boom
At the risk of posting another typical “growthophobe” story, we offer up a major caution in the rush to embrace the Gardner folks’ latest plan for downtown Boise. As wise businessmen, they are gathering as much public funding as possible to build on some pretty small plots adjacent to the Grove Hotel and the U.S. […]
New Foothills Development Planned?
We don’t know if there is a connection with the recent Quail Hollow golf course donation to the city, but it looks like there will be more foothills residents–conveniently overlooking a golf course–if a developer gets his way. We are short on details, but this memo made its way to the GUARDIAN. APOLOGIES in advance […]
Desire Named Street Car Rears Its Ugly Head Yet Again
Thousands of tax dollars later, Team Dave’s desire named street car has resurfaced. This time around instead of hiring a PR outfit to creat public support for Mayor Dave Bieter’s dream of a “downtown circulator,” City officials are aiming for a Jan. 29 meeting to seek “input” on what type of circulator in the downtown […]
Snow Park Slides Over To Eagle Island
Ryan Neptune isn’t about to let any snow melt under his skis. He has cut a deal with the Idaho State Parks Eagle Island venue to test his snow terrain idea. Plans for a snow park on land owned by Ada County and leased to the city of Eagle have hit the skids while commishes […]
Snow Park Continues Slippery Slope
Eagle City officials are forging ahead with plans to acquire land from Ada County to provide exclusive use to a for-profit snow terrain park off Old Horseshoe Bend Road. Ada County Commissioners want to hear from residents about their desired use of the land. There will be a public meeting December 18 at the Ada […]
Downtown Has Moved To Eagle & Fairview
Eagle Road has become Main Street and Meridian is quickly becoming the new “China” for Boise planners, politicos and purchasers–threatening to either own or control everything from highway dollars to retail market share. While Boise has been preoccupied filling the former “hole in the ground” with a mirrored skyscraper, Meridian (Idaho’s third largest city) has […]
Big Money For Bieter Bond Proposal
Proponents of the bond measures that could put Boise into debt to the tune of $51,000,000 have collected about $137,000 to push the ballot question. The Boise WEEKLY checked the campaign finance reports and came up with the following highlights: ESI ($15,000) Gardner Property Holdings ($15,000) Thornton, Oliver, Keller ($1,000) Old Boise Properties ($1,000) Boise […]
Bieter Splits Bond, Follows Guardian Advice
Boise Mayor Dave Bieter has taken the free advice from the GUARDIAN and split a bond debt proposal into two portions, allowing citizens to have a say over both park and fire department expenditures. A downtown police station was removed from the debt package because the specifics were not ready to be considered. Bieter shaved […]
Eagle Council Approves Snow Park
Eagle’s City Council approved a deal Tuesday that could put a commercial snowboard concession on land the city leases from Ada County off Horseshoe Bend Road. It relies on snowmaking technology. According to Idaho Statesman coverage, the city’s 15-year contract with Ryan Neptune is a concession agreement comparable to the agreement the city of Boise […]
Eagle Offers Ada Land To Theme Park Promoter
In yet another “cart before the horse” project of a local city, Eagle is set to consider an offer Tuesday from a developer to approve a commercial summer/winter theme park on land owned by Ada County–before getting permission from the Ada Commishes. Ryan Neptune, an officer of Gateway Parks has told the Eagle City Council […]
Growthophobes Beware Can-Ada Population Of 1,000,000 Predicted By 2040
Massive population growth may sound great to politicos and others eager to solve problems like transportation, sewer, water, education, and air quality, but to growthophobes it signals a call to action. The Sunday Idaho Press Tribune published a story predicting the population of Canyon and Ada Counties would hit one million by 2040. They even […]
Boise Lives Beyond Its Means, Bieter To Ask For $34M Bond Debt
Two days after the city annexed an additional 1.5 square miles–increasing the need to provide services–and only a week or so after announcing a joint agreement with emergency service providers, plans are afoot to go into debt to buy $34,000,000 worth of “infrastructure” improvements and expansions for police, fire, and parks. The good news is […]
What Happened To Honesty And Common Sense?
Gotta admit it has been difficult to write much in the way of “constructive” criticism lately with all the crooked businessmen and business deals coming to light and politicos trying to match the business folks. We have a plethora (for non-library types that’s a whole bunch) of scams that have come to light and not […]
Boise Seeks $700,000 ObamaFare For Airlines
Boise cheerleaders are at it once again, dumping public money into a sales pitch for a corporate welfare plan under the delusion business will flock to the City of Trees if you pay them enough. This time the idea is pay airlines–with federal matching funds–to fly routes that are otherwise not profitable in a free […]
ACHD Commish Weighs In On Parking
ACHD Commish Rebecca Arnold, stressing her comments are her own opinion and not that of the ACHD board, sent a letter to the Boise City Council to be read at Tuesday’s public hearing. She claims a local developer wants the rate hike to benefit a private parking structure he wants to build. The GUARDIAN offers […]
Does Anyone Care About Voter Apathy?
Top winners in the Tuesday GBAD election captured about 1.5% of the registered votes. Not only were most voters in Ada County asleep when the Greater Boise Auditorium District (GBAD) votes were tallied last night, they napped rather than vote at all. Only 9,457 of the registered 175,849 voters (5%) bothered to exercise their right […]
Four Votes Approve $781 Million Development Debt
The Spring Valley CID north of Eagle needed a 2/3 majority vote to pass Tuesday and it got exactly 4 out of six votes to approve the $325 million bonds worth a total of $781 million after interest. Future homeowners will have to repay the debt. VOTES PERCENT REGISTERED VOTERS – TOTAL . . . […]
M3 To Get A Single Vote (Updating Previous Post)
In an election eve development Monday afternoon, Ada County Clerk Chris Rich as decided to “spoil” all 50 of the ballots sent to M3 headquarters in Arizona. However, M3 has come up with a local “authorized rep” in Ada County who will be allowed to cast a single ballot, bringing the number of voters to […]
Fifty Votes From M3 Development To Be Sealed, Not Counted
Ada County Clerk Chris Rich told the GUARDIAN Monday that 50 ballots from the M3 development owner north of Eagle would not be counted in tomorrow’s bond election after both the Idaho Attorney General and Ada County Prosecutor determined only residents of Idaho and the district could vote. That leaves the fate of $325 million […]
Do We Really Need GBAD?
The Greater Boise Auditorium District has $13,000,000 burning a hole in its collective pocket–garnered from a hotel room tax on visitors to the City of Trees. With the May 21 board election approaching, candidates are lining up with ideas on how to spend the cash. Perhaps we need a group dedicated to to doing nothing. […]
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