Anyone who has wanted to pedal the Greenbelt through Garden City to or from Eagle has hit a snag near the Riverside Village subdivision, where a 1.5-mile portion has been closed to bikes for years.
The issue has inspired rancor and even a lawsuit by a citizens group to force Garden City to open its pedestrian-only pathway on the north bank of the river.
This week, the Eagle City Council voted unanimously to support opening the Garden City path.
Councilman Norm Semanko, who is also chairman of the Idaho Republican Party and an Eagle mayoral candidate, made the motion to support the change.
He met with Garden City Mayor John Evans on Thursday in hopes of persuading the city to take another look at the issue.
“I think he (Evans) recognized the need for us to make sure that folks from Eagle can ride their bikes safely through Garden City, and we certainly learned a bit more about his concerns,” Semanko said in a statement released Thursday.
Garden City will listen to Eagle officials, but it’s sticking with its plan to use the bike path on the south side of the river as the through pathway, said Garden City Mayor Evans.
That hinges on Garden City building a bridge over the river to connect Eagle’s northside path with the existing paved Garden City path on the south bank.
That’s a safer alternative to the narrow gravel path through Riverside Village, said Evans.
Evans said the city applied for a grant to build the bridge last year but didn’t get it. The city is looking for other money sources.
“It takes more than one attempt to deal with these things,” he said.
The stretch of pathway near Riverside is not designed for bike use, he said. Even if it were opened, bikers who now complain they have to leave the path and ride on dangerous roads would still face a busy barrier at Glenwood Street before making the connection to the bike path to Boise.
Advocates of linking the northside path to Eagle and Boise say those obstacles are easily overcome — if there’s the will to do so.
“This is no longer an issue that just the Citizens for an Open Greenbelt has with Garden City,” said Gary Segers, founder of the organization that’s worked to open the path for several years. “It now includes another major city in the Treasure Valley that believes the Garden City bike ban has a significant and negative impact on its residents, businesses, and users of the Eagle Greenbelt.”
COG sued the Idaho Land Board and the city of Garden City in 2010. The Land Board has since been dropped from the suit.
Representatives from COG and Garden City will meet at a court hearing on Oct. 6. Garden City will ask the court to dismiss the lawsuit, said Evans.
Anna Webb: 377-6431
