Developer of controversial apartments sues Eagle, claims mayor worked to thwart project
The developer of the controversial Molinari Park apartments is suing Eagle’s mayor and City Council, alleging that they took steps to stop construction of the project and make it impossible to move forward.
The lawsuit, filed in 4th District Court in Ada County on Wednesday, alleges that Eagle Mayor Jason Pierce and Councilman Brad Pike were biased against the project. It asks the court to force the two to recuse themselves from any future decisions regarding the development.
Since it was proposed last spring, Molinari Park has faced opposition. In February 2019, the City Council approved the project, which would bring 212 apartments, 91 townhouses and 5,000 square feet of commercial space to a 25-acre parcel near the southeast corner of South 2nd Street and East Plaza Drive in Eagle’s downtown.
In June 2019, a small group of residents who opposed the apartments and any form of high-density development in Eagle asked the City Council to reconsider. When the council affirmed its approval of the development, the residents sued the city, arguing that the approval would harm the property values of their single-family homes located beyond downtown and that the council’s approval was granted through an unlawful procedure. The suit is still pending, stalling the efforts of the developer, Eagle 26 LLC, which is headed by Boise resident Greg McVay.
But the residents’ momentum carried over into the city elections last November, in which Pike and Pierce emerged as candidates opposing apartments, while the incumbent mayor, Stan Ridgeway, argued that they were appropriate in some parts of the city to provide alternative housing options to seniors and young people not looking to buy.
Ridgeway lost to Pierce. And since the new mayor took office in January, he has taken steps to prevent Molinari Park from building, despite its approval last year, the lawsuit alleges.
Pierce did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Allegations against Pierce
Although the former council approved the preliminary plat for Molinari Park, two boxes still had to be checked before McVay could begin construction.
First, McVay needed the City Council to approve a final plat within a year of the preliminary plat’s approval — June 25, 2020 — or the city’s approval would be void and the project would face the new council.
Second, a new road, Palmetto Drive, would need to be built just east of the project site to connect East Plaza Drive to State Street, as a condition of the city’s approval.
Before a developer approaches the council with a final plat, Eagle requires that they also present and receive approval on a preliminary plat from the city’s Parks, Pathways and Recreation Committee, as well as the Design Review Board.
In their lawsuit, McVay and his firm say they attempted to schedule meetings with these boards in January 2020, but the city declined to put the project on the agenda during meetings in early spring. Later, the city canceled some of the board meetings because of the coronavirus pandemic, “thereby rendering it impossible ... to comply with the final plat application filing deadline,” the suit reads.
“Pierce has used the authority of his office to unduly delay the city’s processing of plaintiff’s application for final plat approval in order to achieve a forfeiture of plaintiff’s development rights,” the lawsuit alleges.
In April, when McVay realized that he would not be able to receive a final plat approval by the June 25 deadline, he asked the council for an extension of the preliminary plat.
On Tuesday, June 23, the council considered the extension. The council’s two newest members, Pike and Charlie Baun, voted against and the previous council’s holdovers, Miranda Gold and Kenny Pittman, voted in favor. Pierce cast the tiebreaking vote with Pike and Baun to table the request, effectively letting the plat expire and forcing the developers to get the new council’s OK.
Building Palmetto Drive
The lawsuit also alleges that Pierce and Pike took “overt action to stop construction” of Palmetto Drive, further obstructing Eagle 26’s ability to build.
The city and the Eagle Urban Renewal Agency had previously entered into contracts to fund the construction of Palmetto. But when bids for the road work came before the council in May, they were rejected — again, with Baun, Pierce and Pike in the majority.
The developers allege that the council denied the bids “in order to justify denying plaintiff’s application for final plat approval or otherwise destroy plaintiff’s development rights.”
“Those votes establish that defendants Brad Pike and Jason Pierce had made up their minds regarding the facts, would not listen to the facts with an open mind and had already determined the outcome of the vote without consideration of the existing law and duties of their office,” the suit alleges.
Eagle 26 claims that as a result of the council’s decision, it suffered a loss in property value of more than $1 million.
A city opposed to apartments
During their campaigns, both Pike and Pierce said they would limit the amount of high-density development built in Eagle.
Earlier this month, the planning and zoning commission approved a zoning amendment that, if approved by the City Council, would allow apartments only in the city’s downtown central business district and areas zoned for mixed use.
“Apartments have gone through a lot of stress and strain with people’s perception,” said land use consultant Mark Butler at the June planning and zoning meeting. Butler proposed the zoning amendment on behalf of two clients looking to build townhouses in the city.
The amendment comes just as Boise is looking at ways to allow more housing density throughout the city to encourage more affordable housing in existing neighborhoods.
This article has been revised. A previous version incorrectly said a proposed ordinance would allow apartments only in Eagle’s central business district. In fact, it would also allow them in land zoned for mixed-use development.
This story was originally published June 25, 2020 at 11:19 AM.
