The Daily Paper did a nice round up of the PROPOSED DEVELOPMENTS in the Sunday edition. Reporter Cynthia Sewell calculates the proposals call for 19331 homes on 7,379 acres. The GUARDIAN calculates that means 11.4 SQUARE MILES of houses.

Simply put, it is insane not only to PROPOSE such vast growth and increase in population at this point in history, it is morally bankrupt to even CONSIDER approving such folly. The bailout of the “quasi governmental” Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac financial institutions has the potential of nearly DOUBLING the federal budget deficit. It does nothing more than encourage and reward irresponsible greedy behavior which benefits only the “big boys.”

If the locals deny the plans, there will be no need to regulate the financing. The first step in any application should be “show me the money.”

While were are at it, it is time to rid society of “quasi” anything. These shadow agencies get created by governments, but are allowed to act with little or no public oversight and are not accountable to the citizens. Locally we have Urban Renewal Agencies and various Housing Authorities as well as a state Health Facilities outfit–all created to finance something or other and their parentage and status is murky to say the least.

We don’t have a housing shortage in the valley, we don’t have any reason to encourage new businesses, workers, or others to either make babies or move here. What we need is for responsible adults to stop encouraging growth just for the sake of growth.

Those of us who live within our means, paying our taxes and bills are punished when special accommodations are offered to the likes of Tamarack, Micron, Albertson, Cabella, and others. (We heard of county commishes in Rexburg excusing taxes on a movie theater bowling alley facility in order to “preserve jobs.”)

Sadly, the GUARDIAN sees little hope we will ever get our heads above water and tackle the issues of pollution, transportation, education, etc. as long as the deciders continue to create the need for schools, roads, buses, and sewage treatment–at the expense of the general public which has to ultimately pony up the cash.

How can the Ada County Highway District hope to get approval for a near doubling of vehicle registration fees in Ada if other agencies are creating the need for more roads and repairs which creates the need for more…it is an endless cycle which MUST be broken.

The Daily Paper had a great story on page one Wednesday detailing all the evils of weather inversion and related health risks. They had charts, graphs, and quotes from officials who predict more bad air alerts.

Below the inversion story was a teaser for a made up story from Farmers Insurance ranking the “most secure” places to live and to no one’s surprise the Boise-Nampa area topped the list!

We found the insurance story on-line, but not in the paper as promised. Even so, there was no mention of the constant drive by shootings and killings in the Nampa-Caldwell area. The problems with downtown drinkers was ignored. No mention of the daily traffic jam on I-84 and deadly crashes on that highway. And of course no reference to the the meth crises and cost of new jail facilities.

A weather service guy told the Statesman, “Besides a yearly inversion, spring floods and fire season, the Boise-Nampa area is safe from extremes.”

So why is the GUARDIAN exercised and how is a secure feeling linked inversions? Read on!

We did a little Google News search to see who else bit on the Farmers made up promo. First up was the CENTRAL VALLEY BUSINESS TIMES from Stockton, California which proudly proclaimed three cities in the Central Valley to be among the “most secure.” With more than 100 areas on the insurance company’s made up list, chances are pretty good FARMERS will be mentioned in at least 50 of them–along with Boise.

Then comes the kicker. The California paper’s story had this line, “The Boise City-Nampa, Idaho, area topped all large metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or greater. Nestled against the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, the area is shielded from severe weather and has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the Farmers study.”

No wonder so many people are moving here we can’t breath! Thanks to gullible mainstream media that is proud to report a “survey,” we can plan to suck even more dirty air into our lungs.

The Chamber of Commerce claims to have raised about $5 million to spend on attracting new businesses and jobs to the Boise area.

The GUARDIAN and fellow growthophobes see this as just another move to lower our quality of life, add more cars, increase air pollution, create a need for mass transportation that won’t work, and fill up all the tennis courts, soccer fields, and swimming pools with too many people.

We don’t have $5 million, but we do have the internet and some creative thinking readers.
How about sharing some “facts” of your own? We might be able to make a big magazine’s “bottom 10” list if we are lucky.

Like we have low paying private jobs, but an expanding government. Growth sectors include, police, fire, roads building, and lots of planners & consultants and of course prisons. Just some thoughts to share with out of town relatives and friends.

Don’t forget to tell them we have lots of wildfires that “threaten structures.”

The Saturday edition of the Daily Paper makes the GUARDIAN want to pull out his three remaining hairs and scream at the inane remarks. On the business page a headline problems “Mayor says GROWTH spurt will hit Caldwell”. Below that is another story headlined, “Chamber chairman sees GROWTH in area entering new phase.”

There are so few of us left to try to stop or control growth these days. Local officials do everything they can to promote growth, manage growth, facilitate growth, deal with growth, etc.

Both Nampa and Caldwell are flooding new interchanges on I-84 with business development that will most certainly slow traffic and kill even more people in traffic jams.

Meanwhile no one sees anything sad or compelling when Nampa Mayor Tom Dale notes the population of Nampa has doubled in 10 years and proclaims, “Those people don’t have the connection to Canyon County. The emotions of the previously charged issues don’t exist today. The challenge is to provide information and opportunities for input.”

Does Dale really mean, “People don’t care anymore because they are all newcomers and it is hard to generate support from folks who have no interest.”

In the other story, Boise Metro Chamber Chair George Iliff will use his influence with government to push for increased vehicle registration fees, gas tax, local sales taxes and more businesses and employees to pay for all the growth problems they previously created. The Chamber recently launched a $5 million campaign to encourage even MORE GROWTH!

The Chamber makes payments to members of the legislature and local government. Mayor Dave Bieter even does a fund raiser for the Chamber each year that grosses over $30,000 which gets recycled back to politicians.

As long as Team Dave, the Idaho Legislature, and Treasure Valley local governments continue to be dominated and paid by the Chamber and big business, we will continue to have more residents who don’t have “history and connection” to the area.

Those of us with a memory are destined to be outspent and bowled over by the growthophiles. But we can make them work for their ill gotten goods.

Guest Post By
CURIOUS GEORGE

Less government? I’m not sure it’s possible to get less government unless we revert to Kurdish-style warlord-ruled fiefdoms. Hegemony anyone?

More to the point, when we moved out to Boise in the 1980’s I was surprised by the number of basic services (water, gas, electricity, etc.) that were privately-owned.

Then, I shrugged my shoulders and deemed it a quaint western states phenomena – a throwback to enterprising service providers from old mining towns. Now, I’m not so sure it’s a pattern we need to continue forward.

It is almost impossible to provide solid, achievable, regional goals when they are constantly undermined by competing private interests. These interests aren’t those of private property owners, since they provide the core financial engine to our economy, but it’s the myriad of (near unregulated – don’t get me started on the band-aid PUC) private service providers that fall all over themselves to provide electricity, water, gas, etc. with no regard to the long-term health of the various communities. And, who in turn pass the costs of the new (unexpected) expenses of new service extensions on to their entire cadre of rate-payers.

This creates an environment-of-expectation – where if growth can be “purchased” today, then we shouldn’t have to worry about if it can be afforded tomorrow. Yet no one would ever dream of budgeting their household expenses in this manner.

In the Midwest many public utilities are still privately-held – but they are all non-profit co-ops. All of these utility companies’ shares are held by the people who actually recieve the services. And, it is these recipient-owners who set the rates and determine where service extension should (or shouldn’t) be run. Can you imagine the hew and cry from the overseas Board of Directors and Shareholders of the Suez Corporation if they had the capacity to provide water to a proposed local development, yet the company’s local administrators refused to provide hook-ups because the development (regardless of how much money the developer was willing to upfront) wasn’t consistent with the community’s Comprehensive Plan?

Nowhere is the gap more apparent than in Boise–where the Dems have made some serious inroads–and Meridian where conservative “family values” people have made their voices heard at the polls…it is as though Dems don’t have family values.

Canyon County is also disparate from Boise and Ada.

The GUARDIAN wonders aloud if it is prudent to continue the charade of “regional planning, smart growth, blue print for growth, COMPASS”, and all the other schemes that consume lots of public dollars and seldom actually get anything done. If we can’t elect like minded officials, we will never agree on mutual plans for growth. We can still live on the same block without going to the same church, eating the same food or working at the same company.

Some issues like air and water quality are inescapably joint, but even then Canyon won’t inspect vehicles that foul the Boise air and Boise maxes out the river with effluent almost daily.

Perhaps it is time for Boise to accommodate gays and homeless, forget about 10 Commandments monuments and stop suing the county and ACHD over losing causes.

Meridian can grow itself to death and fill up with conservatives who flee California and the diverse population flooding into the Golden State.

Eagle can continue to cave to developers and attract expensive homes on large lots. In turn they can battle the City of Star over who gets the emerging tax base.

In short, we can still be good neighbors, but we don’t have to pretend to be friends and lovers. Truth is, Eagle wouldn’t want to consolidate into a county wide fire district and if Boise builds new libraries they won’t be paying service fees to Eagle and Garden City.

We have “Red States and Blue States” because we are different. There is no political will for conservative Idaho to join liberal Oregon. None of us like the idea of “outsiders” telling how to live our lives. Why not embrace reality?

Perhaps it is time to just be ourselves–whatever that may be–and stop trying to impose our values, taxes, lifestyles, and religions on others.

Twenty-three new planned communities are proposed for Ada County according to the Statesman’s front page article of October 11, 2006.

If approved, these massive “planned communities” will give us sprawl as far as the eye can see.

It’s this kind of mindless development that has made Phoenix, Denver and Las Vegas bloated, environmentally challenged eyesores, and could result in an Ada County with no wildlife, clogged roads and freeways, and collapsed infrastructures. But, gee, there will be a lot of happy developers.

Fully one-third of the planned communities will be placed in the Foothills. Say goodbye to the beautiful natural backdrop to Boise and Eagle, good-bye to wildlife and nearby trails. Hello, Hollywood hills (gridlock, smog, no wildlife, no greenery, no recreation, overcrowded schools, fire hazards, and piped in water from heaven knows where).

Here’s the breakdown of what’s proposed:

– The Cliffs – 1,300 homes (approved by P&Z Board, to County Commissioners next)
– M3 – 12,000 homes
– Dry Creek Ranch – 4,300 homes
– Cartwright Ranch – 700 homes
– Avimor – 8,000 homes (680 homes have been approved as “phase 1”; the number of homes for succeeding phases is “said to be” in the 6000-8000 range)
– Connelly – 4,000 homes (number not settled–still on the “drawing board”)
– Kastera – number unknown (they have acquired enough land for a planned community that encompasses the Shadow Valley Golf Course. They also have two additional large parcels of land, one in the northwest foothills area, and another in the central foothills north of 36th Street.) 
The number of homes to be built in the Foothills totals 30,980 without Kastera. Keep in mind that planned communities consist not only of single family residences, but also townhouses, condos, some have apartment buildings, and all have some kind of commercial development. That means traffic, folks. Lots of it.

The Ada County Highway District and developers themselves estimate between 232,350 and 309,800 vehicle trips per day will be generated by those communities. Cars will pour down Highway 55 in numbers greater than the Flying Wye at commute time, and from there onto State Street, Eagle Road, Seaman’s Gulch, Hill Road, and Warm Springs to downtown Boise, Eagle, or I-84. The nightmare intersection of Eagle and Franklin has “only” 54,000 vehicle per day!

COMPASS, ITD and ACHD did not expect high density development in the Foothills and have allocated no money for new or widened roadways there. The public has spoken loud and clear that it does not want the Foothills developed. The recent Ada County Comprehensive Plan update and the Blueprint for Good Growth both go along with the public’s wishes.

Will Ada County’s planning staff, P&Z board, and County Commissioners support the public or act like the Developers’ Cheerleader Squad?

Only time will tell. Enjoy the Treasure Valley while you can. It might not last much longer.

EDITOR NOTE–Developers at Hidden Springs caused the collapse of a county road and that planned community has already been altered into a big subdivision after the “plan” failed to attract buyers. Even so it is touted as a great example of planned growth.

City zoning law limits buildings to 45 feet at that location, but the developer wants to disregard the law and build a structure nearly double the legal limit at about 80 feet. They also want the city to let them ignore the law that requires 20 foot setbacks and place the structure 10 feet closer to the sidewalk.

Boise’s Downtown Business Association supports the illegal building proposal in a letter, calling such projects the “key to quality development.”

The GUARDIAN and growthophobic neighbors have opposed the project for some time. In March the planning and zoning commission rejected the project because it was outside the law in violation of the height restriction.

The latest application is typical of developers in Boise. They ask for outrageous things–like 119 feet height exceptions and then claim, “we lowered the Wright by 40 feet.”

Variances to zoning laws should be made only for minor adjustments. For example,when a lot has been compromised by a street expansion and is a few square feet short of required size. Variances should not be allowed for wholesale hop scotching of existing zoning laws. Exceptions for developers
makes a mockery of our laws and is an insult to those who planned and passed them.

This thing proposes to add 90 living units, 300 parking spaces and more retail in an area already choked with cars. We say build within the law or find another city to ply your trade.

Comes now the cheerleaders for growth and football fans. The GUARDIAN wonders if the “National Exposure” on ESPN that is always touted as worth hundreds of thousands to the economy will cause the same monetary LOSS when the world sees how filthy the Boise Valley can be–naturally. When ESPN does that long shot of the sun filtered through the smoke or the copper colored full moon will it cause “bad exposure?”

Hard to put much stock in dire warnings from the Boise Schools when they keep the kids inside and curtail athletics due to health concerns, but a college football game forges ahead because ESPN has spent so much money to air (smoke?) the game.

When the crowds file into the stadium tonight to watch the football game through the haze it will add new meaning to the phrase, “DIE HARD BRONCO FANS.”

Dumping commercial runoff into Boise Parks is not new. WinCo (between Myrtle and Front Streets) cut a deal with deposed mayor Brent Coles to route their parking lot water into Julia Davis Park in exchange for a “donated” sign (reportedly worth $50,000) on Capitol Blvd. several years ago. They claim to have a “state of the art” filtration system, but when it comes to separating antifreeze and de- icing chemicals from water, it takes some technology. We are not aware of any monitoring of the discharge into the lagoon.

One reason the Bench-Depot neighbors aren’t screaming too loudly is because they fear water collected onsite and allowed to seep out could take a right turn and ooze out the face of the rim and make a mess of the existing upscale Park Center Apartment complex. In fact, there has been a long standing problem with irrigation water saturating the area and spewing from the hillside.

A similar thing happened years ago along Warm Springs Avenue after septic tank seepage from Warm Springs Mesa caused mud slides. The cure was a sewer system.

In the case of the Crescent Rim condo development, there is no problem–YET. There are no condos or parking lot, but that is comming soon. Looks like the city will “bail” the developer out of a water problem. The proposal on the table calls for a discharge rate of about 450 gallons per minute–which will occur only during rain storms of heavy snow melt.

We question the wisdom–and propriety–of discharging runoff into the waters of the little known stream which meanders along the base of the rim within the park. This deal needs to have public scrutiny before Boise City becomes the facilitator to action which could cause an environmental impact.

The proposed 1 CFS discharge of water into the public stream needs to be monitored closely BEFORE it is a done deal.

The GUARDIAN also has long been concerned about the legality of Drainage District #3 having taxing authority, but none of the commissioners is elected. A law office sends names to a judge to APPOINT these three guys. It seems highly irregular to allow absolutely no public vote for officials who have authority to tax our property. These are the guys who are a party to cutting the deal with the developer who doesn’t want to follow the law and collect surface runoff on site.