Save The Plateau Public Comments

July 24, 2006

 Mark Pecchenino
Ada County Development Services
200 W. Front Street
Boise, ID  83702-7300

Subject:  Hammer Flat Development

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

 Money Magazine recently listed Boise as the 8^th best place to live in the United States, citing among other things, outdoor sports, green space and trails, and the Boise Foothills as prominent assets.  On the down side, they cautioned about Boise’s climbing property taxes and sprawl

With Money Magazine’s recent conclusion in mind, the application before Ada County to develop The Cliffs looks like a poster child for wrong thinking.  This development, if approved, will deplete deer herds and therefore hunting game related outdoor sports.  By unnecessarily leapfrogging other developments and siting itself in the foothills it will contribute to sprawl and degrade the foothill backdrop.  And, by failing to cover its own fiscal and economic costs, it will degrade the local economy and increase property taxes.

CASES IN POINT:

WILDLIFE IMPACTS - The application advocates permanently eliminating more than 400 acres of the most critical big game winter habitat in Ada County, perhaps the entire State of Idaho, without adequately explaining how impacts to wildlife, specifically wintering big game, will be mitigated.  The applicant makes generalized recommendations but provides no details as to how actual mitigation and compensation, if any, will take place. 

 In effect, the applicant failed to provide a wildlife mitigation plan.  This means that the application is incomplete, should not have been accepted as such, and should be denied.

INGRESS – EGRESS – In Skyline Development's rush to submit the application for The Cliffs, they forgot something, they don’t own the land they plan to use for their main route of ingress – egress.  The land is currently owned by Idaho Department of Transportation and there does not seem to be straight forward, legal, means of transferring the land to the developer.  To the extent that it is possible to transfer the land to Skyline legally, it may take years.  By then, the relevant transportation studies associated with this project will be obsolete.  

With a component of the project of this magnitude unresolved, the application should never have been submitted, development services should not have accepted it as complete, and it should not be the subject of the pending public hearing.

This omission alone is grounds for denying the application.

FISCAL IMPACT - Through a combination of flaws and errors, the applicant over estimated the potential tax revenue to Ada County by several million dollars per year.

If the average selling price of residences at the cliffs is lower than about $324,465, a level that is $37,000 below The Cliff’s target of $362,000, but still a whopping $100,000 above the 2005 average price of homes in the 200 and 300 market areas, The Cliffs will be a burden on Ada County tax payers.

Further, if homes in The Cliffs ultimately sell for the MLS market area 200 and 300 average 2005 price of $224,338, The Cliffs will cost Ada County taxpayers $1,283,988 per year. 

Add in the one-year time lag between the construction of the homes and the receipt of the taxes, and the fiscal drain on the Ada County taxpayers resulting from The Cliffs will be $1,511,311 per year.

Given these results, it is clear that Skyline Development’s application for The Cliffs fails to comply with Policy 5.8-10 or the Ada County Comprehensive Plan calling for Planned Communities to provide finances necessary for public services.  For this reason, this application must be denied.

TREATMENT PLANT DISCHARGE TO BOISE RIVER - Decades of efforts to clean up the Boise River have culminated in the river becoming one of the greatest assets of any American city.  In that context, the applicant’s plan to discharge their waste treatment plant effluent into the Boise River, barely a mile upstream of Barber Park, Boise’s signature summer recreation asset, rates as one of the greatest affronts to public sensibility and environmental awareness in the city’s history. 

In a survey conducted by SaveThePlateau.org in 2005, 88 percent of the respondents indicated they would either; Stop using the river completely; Significantly Curtail Use of the River; or Moderately Curtail their use of the river if the applicant followed through with this plan.

For this reason, this application must be denied.

WILDLIFE REFUGE OPPORTUNITIES - Siting a subdivision on Hammer Flats is a solution that yields 40 – 100 fewer jobs, and $1,500,000 - $3,500,000 less in aggregate demand per year for Boise City and Ada County, than would be the case if the subdivision were to be located anywhere else.

SUMMARY FISCAL AND ECONOMIC COST - These and other costs of the project will result in a combined fiscal and economic loss to Ada County and the State of Idaho ranging from $5.9 Million to $8.8 million.

On this basis, The Cliffs’ fails to comply with Policy 5.8-10 or the Ada County Comprehensive Plan calling for Planned Communities to provide for finance necessary public services. 

 For the same reason, the application fails to comply with 67-6502(c) of the Idaho Code that requires, “ . . the economy of the state and localities (to be) protected.””

 For these reasons, jointly and severally, this application must be denied.

CULTURAL ISSUES - The lands of Hammer Flat sit as a great high vantage point looking out over the Boise River valley towards Castle Rock and Table Rock, recognized Native American sacred sites.  To develop this area would not only erase one of the most beautiful and significant archaeological lands in Boise, including artifacts which may reveal more history but practically eliminate further history of the native people of Idaho. 

For this reason, this land should not be developed as planned.

PETITION SIGNATORIES - From doctors to developers, from students to teachers, from persons in their eighties to those in their teens, over 2,500 persons have signed the SaveThePlateau petition calling for the protection of Hammer Flat.  These people come from all walks of life and form, arguably, the largest group of people in Idaho history, to oppose a single residential real estate development.  These people confirm, one more time, that Boise City and Ada County residents place a high value on the existence of, an unspoiled natural environment in Boise’s foothills.

These signatories illustrate that, if we desire to maintain our status as a nationally ranked business and tourist destination, we must be careful to protect the assets that give us an advantage over other areas.  In the words of one petition signer from Wyoming:

“Urban sprawl and the loss of open space ultimately has (sic) an adverse affect on your citizens and their quality of life.  We don't need another Denver.””

For this reason, together with all the previously listed reasons, the application to develop The Cliffs must be denied.

Sincerely,

Anthony Jones
Founder – SaveThePlateau.org
P.O. Box 1914
Boise, ID 83701