The Cliffs' Blog

The Cliffs has now officially entered the government process. Minutes ago, we submitted our application to Ada County for a planned community development.

WHEW! The 400-plus page document represents more than two years of dreaming, planning, study, revision and public presentations. But this is really only the beginning.

In the coming months, county officials will conduct a rigorous review to ensure the application meets adopted codes. We will hold more public informational meetings and the county will schedule its own meetings and hearings.

The planned community process is more than just streets and plat lines. Among other things, we must justify the economic viability of the project and its ability to pay its own way for services.

These are not among the requirements of a typical subdivision. The goal of the planned community process, however, is to bring about a higher standard of development and the trade-off is certainly worth it. Our lead planner, Jim Heid, notes a planned community “offers the most practical, affordable and achievable chance to build without sprawl, given its potential to create large-scale, conserved open lands and sustainable modern infrastructure.”

The level of environmental stewardship and advanced infrastructure we are proposing has never before been attempted here. On behalf of the entire development team at The Cliffs, we look forward to working with officials and the public to make The Cliffs a model of environmentally and socially responsible development.

Historically, people have viewed water as either a resource to put to work, or a nuisance. Over the past few decades, however, there has been a growing realization that water is valuable for the benefits it can provide to our quality of life, be they esthetic, recreational and environmental.

A new technology called Membrane Bio-Reactor (MBR) promises to help The Cliffs to realize the dream of complete water conservation. This technology has been gaining notice and was highlighted in the Jan. 28 Idaho Statesman. Water quality is a big issue for us, since the development on and around Hammer Flat relies on septic tanks, which are the most environmentally unfriendly legal way of disposing of raw sewage. Under the current zoning, new development could continue to use septic tanks – a situation that would not change even if the city controlled the land. Hammer Flat has suffered enough degradation under the primitive, backward technology of septic tanks and we envision a better future. More information on MBR is available at this site.

The City of Star is already using this technology. At The Cliffs, we will cleanse the water to Class B, which exceeds the current quality of the Boise River. Class B reclaimed wastewater is permitted for use on edible portions of food crops and may be used to irrigate parks, playgrounds, lawns and schoolyards

And, while Boise and other cities simply dump their treated effluent into the Boise River, we are opting to take a more enlightened approach through conservation and recycling. After we treat our wastewater with MBR technology, we will use it to fill ponds and water draws on the slopes behind The Cliffs. This precious resource will be put to use to create ponds and sustain grasses, shrubs and cover for deer, elk, birds, rodents and other creatures. Currently, the plateau is an arid place, with no year-round source of water.

We expect to return a minimum of treated water into the Boise River, because the maximum amount of water will be applied to the habitat. For more information on water recycling and the potential benefits to habitat, go to this EPA site.

As I write this, our team is hard at work reviewing comments from about 100 people who showed up to our public informational meeting last night. Even our most vocal critics came to learn what they could. Our 22 experts in traffic, water treatment, biology, hydrology, conservation easements and planning provided a great level of detail and new information for all who came.

We’ve been discussing this development with neighbors for the past year and they have provided a number of good ideas. While this meeting was legally required, we certainly would have held it anyway. We are committed to doing the right thing and keeping everyone informed about our efforts is a crucial part of that.

A sampling of the valuable comment people gave us:

“Why not work with a Fish and Game biologist?” “Will the CCRs cover xeriscape, wildlife prevention, construction techniques and light pollution?” “Do not build it!” “Everyone seems very passionate about the project and has done extensive research.” “Find other open space to build on.” “What will be the number of raptors impacted and your intent to study the impact?” “A 3-D model would help me visualize the land and the development.” “How does this development mesh with the future Harris Ranch development and will that development be forced to deal with traffic.” “Don’t build. No matter how you want to ‘sugar coat’ this, you are developing, period. Idaho is full of beautiful scenic areas, don’t build on this one.” “Increased traffic on Surprise Way was not considered.” “An exciting design and layout” “It appears you’re certainly doing your homework.” “Still need more information on sizes and numbers of lots.” “Will there be sufficient number of parking for public access to cliff areas and bike trail heads? Single-point roadway access to development is a very poor idea.” “Will this be affordable? I’m not sure if we’ll be able to afford the community.” “This is exactly what we’re looking for – when will it be available?” “I liked the level of comprehensive planning and commitment to open space.” “Continue to involve the public all throughout the process.”

These comments were offered in the best spirit of democracy and public process. We will do everything in our power to ensure our submission to Ada County reflects these concerns.

There’s been a lot of discussion of late on growth paying for itself. It’s a topic of great importance to us and we expect to get some questions about that at our open house meeting on Thursday, Feb. 9 (see the Jan. 31 post below this one). We believe planned communities – not the general public – should shoulder the costs of their services. To that end, we have entered into an agreement with the Whitney Fire District to protect The Cliffs. The Whitney Fire District has a track record of providing reliable, efficient service to Ada County residents.

What’s unusual here is that we’re going the extra mile to make sure The Cliffs pays its own way. We’re told this is the first time in Idaho that a developer has proposed providing and/or paying for the land, the building, equipment and full-time personnel. We will reimburse local government for the salaries of the firefighters entirely at the outset, and reduce that as the tax base at The Cliffs expands. Everywhere else in the county, if a fire station needs to be built to service growth, the general tax base pays for it. Ours is an innovative proposal and we thank the Whitney Fire District for approving it.

It’s worth pointing out the current example of development on the plateau – low-density leapfrog development, serviced with dirt roads and septic tanks, accessible only by automobile – requires the most public subsidy. People in this development must drive into Boise for even the most mundane needs, polluting the air with vehicle exhaust and our water with dust and burdening existing neighborhoods. While septic tanks are legal, they are the most environmentally unfriendly way of disposing of raw sewage.

That development is a throwback to the days when our community had a higher tolerance for urban sprawl. We pledge The Cliffs will be as self-sufficient as any planned community can possibly be in this day and age and our commitment to the Whitney Fire District will set the tone for our other services as The Cliffs progresses.

We expect any ambitious project like The Cliffs to spark spirited discussion. We welcome this because, like our opponents, we share an intense commitment to honor and respect the land. We passionately believe listening to all points of view will result in a better process and development.

However, we do ask that people present things accurately, particularly if they are quoting our materials or Web site. Therefore, it was with dismay that we read this guest opinion in The Idaho Statesman on Jan. 23. In an attempt to discredit our efforts, the author of the opinion piece, Tony Jones, made several serious distortions about The Cliffs and other environmentally conscious planned communities.

On this page and our press packet we list a half-dozen planned communities that successfully live in harmony with nature in diverse places, as there are many people who might not know environmentally conscious development is possible and fairly common. We never indicated, as Jones states, that any of these developments would serve as a “model” for The Cliffs, nor did we even use the word “model" on this page. We made clear these are nothing more than “examples of how planned communities and nature can successfully co-exist” and it takes a willful desire to mislead to portray our characterization of them otherwise.

The author also makes it sound as though we formulated that list for some hidden agenda. As we state clearly, five of those developments on the list came from the book “The Practice of Sustainable Development” by the Urban Land Institute, while the sixth development received a ULI Award for Excellence. The ULI is one of the nation’s most respected research and educational organizations, of which Mr. Jones is very familiar. That he would deliberately leave this information out of his opinion suggests a regrettable lack of forthrightness.

There are many other inaccurate statements, such as The Cliffs won’t be self-sufficient in its services (offered with no corroboration). I’ll deal with those in subsequent posts, but for now I want to emphasize our commitment to maintain good relations with everyone, including our opponents. We invite everyone to stick to the principles of accountability, transparency and openness in all their statements.