Growth
City Mum On Financing Vision
Boise City Councilor Alan Shealy should be proud of his Planning and Zoning Department for being “pro-active” with the color drawing and unquestioning text on the front page of the Daily Paper Tuesday. The city has put forth a major planning effort in the area of 30th Street between State and Fairview for the past […]
Taxes To Increase Eagle Rd. Traffic
Meridian politicos are aiming to deprive the citizens of Idaho of at least $15 million in sales taxes to help a commercial developer create more traffic on Eagle Road at Fairview where he wants to build another retail mall. A new law passed by the Idaho legislature to subsidize a Cabela’s in North Idaho will […]
Wanna Pay For 200 Jobs?
We admit it isn’t real sexy, but the GUARDIAN is not comfortable with the way Team Dave is managing the City land holdings and real estate speculation. The latest cause for concern evolves around a political announcement by Team Dave that WinCo would build a 700,000 square foot “distribution center” adjacent to a big block […]
Transit Sounds Good, Costs Too Much
By Ronald M. Harriman GUARDIAN READER Your legislators will be asked this year to allow a local option tax for transit in the Treasure Valley. The transit plan proposed by the local Idaho transit folks is $1.2 Billion dollars over the next 20 years, probably funded with sales taxes. It SOUNDS good…”it will clean […]
WinCo Insider Trades At City Hall
Gotta Hand it to Team Dave. When it comes to manipulating the media and public they do a darn good job. We groused (among other things) about spending money on the city owned railroad to nowhere in a CAMPAIGN ISSUES posting June 25 which turned into a defense of a kayak park. Turns out any […]
Urban Wilderness Conflict
As Boise continues to grow houses into the foothills and desert surrounding the city, look for more incidents involving wildlife like Wednesday’s elk chase. The GUARDIAN editor spotted a deer standing in the middle of Federal Way near The Depot and the Capital-Vista intersection this summer. In a nutshell, at least 5 elk wandered into […]
Avimor Highway Access Problems?
Attend a public hearing for a proposed real estate development and you will likely hear the developer ask the regulatory authority to waive many of the codes, rules, and regulations pertaining to such projects. When an agency like Ada County or Idaho Transportation Department yields to such requests, a developer gets a good deal, and […]
Ada Commishes Spending Spree
A good story in the Daily Paper by reporter Cynthia Sewell last week got buried thanks to the antics of Sen. Larry Craig and family. She tells us in a positive manner the Commishes are running amok in the real estate game grabbing property all over the county for expansion of county facilities. It won’t […]
Raping The Land For Profit
ANOTHER IN OUR SERIES OF POSTINGS FROM GUARDIAN READERS By MATT CIRANNI I was up Hideden Springs in the foothills recently and I was shocked at the flagrant destruction of open space that has taken place. Foothills developments seem to have been escalating recently despite popular opposition, and despite city and county planners paying lip […]
Ada County Courthouse Too Small?
Ada County Assessor Bob McQuade is looking forward to improving public access to his office when it moves out of the court house, but the GUARDIAN’s radar went on high alert when we got the tip. Seems the new Ada court house on Front Street is just too small to house all the agencies currently […]
GUARDIAN European Thoughts
While Tibbs is sniping at Bieter and the valley is filled with smoke, the GUARDIAN editor is working the day job in Northwest France, Belgium, and Holland making photos for textbooks and other publications. Don’t want to lose any of our valuable readers, so here are some random thoughts to be followed by some nice […]
Politicos Dislike Public Scrutiny
Lee Iacocca could well have been talking about Ada County in his new book, “WHERE HAVE ALL THE LEADERS GONE?” Add Eagle Mayor Nancy Merrill to the list of well intended inept elected officials. In keeping with the tradition of excluding the public from hearing the public’s business, she scheduled a meeting of city and […]
Boise Taxpayer Challenges City Budget
Richard Rogers is mad as hell and doesn’t want to take it anymore–especially when it comes to Boise property taxes. After he got his property tax assessment and estimated tax he called the Mayor’s Hotline to complain. Here is the gist of what he said. By RICHARD ROGERS My city taxes are going up 18.1% […]
Activist Challenges County Budget
While the Ada County Commishes are touting a ‘lower levy’ the truth is in the numbers and this year’s budget calls for record spending. If the commishes think they have heard the last of Sharon Ullman they are dead wrong. A former commish herself, the lady has her ducks lined up comes out shooting. Here […]
Growthophobia Heads For The Hills
Growthophobia and excess traffic are spreading to the mountains of Idaho. Here is an opinion by a GUARDIAN reader warning of taking our urban problems to the wilderness. By CHET BOWERS The Mountain West is experiencing an ever increasing use of our public lands by operators of motorized vehicles. An armada of 2-wheelers, 3-wheelers, 4-wheelers, […]
Air Quality In The Eye (and lungs) Of Beholders
Two writers with opposing views on the air quality issue in the Treasure Valley asked to use the GUARDIAN as a discussion platform. Tim Kempf of Eagle is keenly interested in growth issues and fancies himself as using a scientific approach to issues. Michael Barnett of Nampa sees air quality as being somewhat stable, but […]
Line Up The Ducks BEFORE You Shoot Them
The following is a self-described rant by Activist Tony Jones after attending the Ada County Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. His report: “Some people think the reason roads, air, and water are deteriorating in this county, and taxes are increasing, is a big complicated subject. It may be as simple as one word: Messy. Last […]
P&Z Commish Wants Growth Moratorium
GUARDIAN EXCLUSIVE By STEVE EDGAR Sitting as an Ada county P&Z Commissioner for over a year now, I have come to the conclusion that we need a moratorium on growth in the Treasure Valley. My reasoning is to allow time for catch up and create some breathing (no pun intended) room. I have arrived at […]
Grow Houses With Snake River Water
A Boise engineering firm has beensoliciting developers to fund a $1.5 million feasibility study to take 368 acre feet a day from the Snake River so more houses can be built on the desert between Boise and Mountain Home. According to the brochure in bold red letters: “DEVELOPMENT OF THESE LANDS WILL REQUIRE A NEW […]
Development Tide May Be On Ebb
The young man sitting next to me on the flight to Boise grew excited when I told him I have lived in the same home for nearly 36 years. “Wow! You gotta be happy about property values going up over that amount of time,” said the newcomer from San Jose. He had attended university and […]
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