The Cliffs' Blog

Several people have asked us about our public outreach efforts. We are pleased to invite you to join us for an informational neighborhood meeting to be held Thursday, February 9th from 5-8pm at Trail Wind Elementary School, 3701 E Lake Forest Drive in Boise.

This is not an official public hearing, which is conducted by a government agency to take testimony. Rather, set in the style of an open house, our informal meeting will give you an opportunity to visit one-on-one with our development team and various experts with whom we’ve consulted concerning important issues such as traffic, wildlife habitat, planning, water treatment, etc. They will staff tables with diagrams, photos and brochures. You will be able to ask specific questions, express your ideas and suggestions and provide comments. We encourage you to learn as much as you can about our project.

Likewise, we are excited to meet with you and listen to your thoughts. Whether you're a wildlife lover, climber, hiker, neighbor or prospective resident, there is much we can learn from you. After this meeting, we will put our planners and consultants to work on how to best incorporate these comments into our application to Ada County.

This meeting is a culmination of a year of public outreach. Starting in January 2005, we began involving people in The Cliffs through one-on-one interviews and small group meetings in neighbors’ homes. Through these early efforts, we talked with more than 80 people. The wisdom of holding these meetings has been proven to us, because neighbors came forward with many excellent ideas and a number of them are reflected in the current conceptual plan. These include adding a traffic roundabout to the community entrance that will serve as a traffic calming structure for Warm Springs and provide an attractive entrance into the Barber Valley. In addition to traffic measures, we learned more about our land and the wildlife needs as observed by our neighbors.

We are committed to being good neighbors, good stewards of the land and creating a place of enduring value. First and foremost, however, we must listen, and I look forward to hearing your comments at our meeting.

We have received many emails from people wanting to know when we're breaking ground and when lots will be available for purchase. Many of these emails come from Treasure Valley residents, while others come from professionals and high-tech workers in other states - just the kind of workforce housing The Cliffs is meant to provide.

Right now, we are focused on taking public comment to refine our vision of The Cliffs, then formally submitting that vision to Ada County to begin the approval process. We are collecting the names of those people who have notified us of their interests in living in the Cliffs and will keep in touch to let them know when our marketing efforts begin.

I took another walk on the property today. Even in the dead of winter, the land is awe inspiring. But threats to wildlife are everywhere: scars from fires, medusahead and cheatgrass dominate swaths of land. Standing in a weed patch, I can see a group of homes just beyond the southeast boundary of the property (visible at the center of the photo at the bottom of this page). These homes pose additional threats because they are on septic tanks, which degrade water quality, and their dirt roads degrade water and air quality.

As I look out over the land, I appreciate that its stewards must heal the abuses, adopt modern environmental standards and conscientiously develop recreation opportunities. At times like these, the responsibility of this stewardship is at once sobering and exciting, because we have the vision, resources and commitment to make this a better place with The Cliffs.

The Boise City Planning and Zoning Commission last night recommended the city extend its Area Of Impact (AOI) to include much of Hammer Flat, including The Cliffs. This maneuver is clearly meant to stop The Cliffs, which Mayor Bieter has repeatedly spoken against.

The city claims it wants to exert control over development here to protect and improve wildlife and ensure public access. These things are already underway with The Cliffs and we will provide a level of protection and access that far exceeds any government mandate.

The city says it wants to expand its area of impact to ensure sound planning, protect habitat and promote public recreational access, because its rules are more restrictive than the county’s. In truth, the city will be able to guarantee none of these benefits and has thus far relied on developer generosity and initiative for its successes elsewhere.

First of all, the current zoning of Hammer Flat is 1 unit per 40 acres. That would remain the same inside the AOI. That means landowners would legally be entitled, by right, to build 40-acre ranchettes and/or fence off the entire property. In addition, the current zoning does not provide for open space. All of Hammer Flat is currently buildable acreage. There is nothing the city could do to compel landowners to maintain wildlife habitat or provide access for hikers, climbers, bicyclists and paragliders. Forty acre home sites are the ultimate in suburban sprawl, each using a septic tank, individual well and putting up a fence to deny people and wildlife access to the land. That’s a future for Hammer Flat that no one wants to see.

The only leverage the city would have is if a landowner wanted to build more than 1 unit per 40 acres. Then, the landowner could negotiate with the city under the Boise Foothills Ordinance. In exchange for permission to build more homes, the landowner would have to cluster those homes, freeing up buildable land for wildlife habitat and recreation.

The city’s only example of application of its Foothills Ordinance like this is with the approval of Boulder Heights last year. In that case, however, the ordinance was still in the approval process and officials persuaded developers to voluntarily adopt the standards. As a result, it isn’t accurate to say that the Boulder Heights subdivision is an example of the city successfully enforcing the Boise Foothills Ordinance. It’s an example of a developer taking the initiative to cluster and accommodate wildlife – just like we are doing.

The irony is that The Cliffs would build to standards meeting or exceeding the Foothills Ordinance. On the 700-acre site, we are proposing to cluster the homes so that more than half the land will be open space. Also, the Foothills ordinance requires no restoration of existing habitat and we would be undertaking extensive restoration.

The Cliffs will be an example of Getting It Right in Foothills development. We ask the city to reconsider its expansion attempt and allow conscientious developers to do what they do best: Protecting special lands, creating great places to live and building places worth caring about.

One indication that you’re doing the right thing is when external news affirms the value of your efforts. That was the case January 5, when Micron Technology announced plans to add 900 well-paying jobs just a few minutes from The Cliffs. What a great economic boost for this valley!

Micron is doing well because it has diversified into different kinds of memory chips and imaging sensors. These jobs will pay salaries of anywhere from $30,000 to more than $100,000, and create an estimated 1,800 additional jobs in retail, construction, health care and other sectors. According to The Idaho Statesman’s Jan. 6 edition, about 14,000 people currently work in the high-tech industry in Southwest Idaho and a significant portion of those individuals work for Micron.

Likewise, the Treasure Valley needs to diversify its housing offerings. Currently, most of our growth is occurring in Meridian and Nampa and the stock of attainable, high-quality workforce housing is getting slimmer in East and Southeast Boise. By adding 1,200 to 1,400 homes in various income brackets, The Cliffs will do much to meet this demand.

The prosperity of our valley depends on it. In April 2005, economist Joel Kotkin told the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce that in order to continue prospering, our top priority should be to maintain a steady supply of attainable workforce housing. With such housing, we can accommodate the right kind of growth in the Treasure Valley.

We hope local officials and leaders understand that developments like The Cliffs will be in the right time and place to keep our economy strong and add value to our community.