2 years ago, Eagle elected the mayor Avimor’s developer backed. Now this is happening
Two years after Eagle voters elected Avimor-backed Jason Pierce as mayor, he and his allies on the City Council have been wrestling with what to do with the massive Foothills development.
Avimor’s developer plans ultimately to have 10,000 homes dotting nearly 36 square miles of the Eagle Foothills and spanning three counties. Its developers would like Avimor to be part of the city of Eagle.
In 2006, Ada County permitted Avimor to develop 800 acres in the unincorporated Foothills. At the time the county allowed urban-style development in unincorporated areas of the county. Ada County shifted in 2016 to tighten restrictions so that urban-style development would be allowed only within city limits. That shift meant Avimor had to be annexed into a city to develop all 10,000 homes.
Avimor worked with the Eagle City Council to expand the city’s comprehensive plan into the Foothills so that the city might one day annex Avimor.
The developer poured money into the 2019 mayoral and City Council races after facing a threat to annexation from then-Mayor Stan Ridgeway and the City Council. Ridgeway and the council said annexing Avimor would cost taxpayers too much money,
The Avimor candidates were elected. With annexation still on the table, Pierce and the council set up a series of meetings with Avimor developers and partners to discuss the annexation plan and its costs, and to allow council members to ask questions.
Economic study finds annexation costly in long run
By the end of the year, Avimor will have built nearly 700 homes since Ada County approved the development in 2003, said Dan Richter, Avimor managing member. At full buildout an estimated 30 years from now, Richter said, Avimor would have nearly 10,000 homes. Annexing the development would add more than 20,000 residents to Eagle by then, a consulting firm says.
In the latest meeting between the Eagle City Council and Avimor, on Nov. 16, an economic impact study from fiscal consulting firm TischlerBise found that Ridgeway and the former City Council may have been right about the cost of annexation.
Colin McAweeney, a fiscal analyst with TischlerBise who presented the study’s findings to the council, looked at 30 years of projected future growth in Eagle with two scenarios for Avimor annexation. One includes annexing the entire community. The second excludes the homes that have already been built.
Both scenarios would mean a 60% to 65% increase in the population of Eagle, which was 30,346 in the 2020 census; and a 20% increase in jobs, McAweeney said.
TischlerBise is a nationwide fiscal, economic and planning consulting firm based in Boise and Maryland that has produced 800 fiscal impact analyses for clients across the United States and Canada.
The analysis for Eagle and Avimor projected from the first year of annexation to year 10, Eagle would generate large revenues, but after that revenue would be minimal. The firm found in years 11-20 the city would operate at net neutral and a deficit from year 20-31.
McAweeney projected a total $9 million budget deficit over next 30 years for the city if it annexes Avimor.
Police, parks could be major cost for Eagle
One of the major ongoing costs of annexation would be police services, McAweeney said.
With growth come more houses and more calls for police and emergency services. In both scenarios, police services would account for up to 47% of the expenditures for annexation.
Another concern is parks.
City code required that Eagle dedicate 3.3 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents. In 2017 Eagle had an excess of 1.4 acres of park land in total, said Ridgeway in an interview with the Statesman.
He estimates that the city is now in a deficit of parkland with the growth it has experienced. He said that a study from 2017 found that the cost of developing one acre of park land is $150,000.
David Eberle, an economist and former Boise City Council member and a hired consultant for Avimor, presented to the council after McAweeney and offered a more optimistic view of annexation.
Eberle disagreed with how much debt the city would be in if it annexed the development. He said it would end up mostly neutral at the end of 30 years.
He said the city’s impact fees would cover the cost of police. Impact fees are charged to developers, based on the size and type of new construction. Under Idaho law, cities can use impact-fee revenue only on capital expenses, like new parks or fire stations. Eberle said the major concern would be to cover the costs of parkland. If annexed, Avimor would have to turn its parkland and trails over to the city of Eagle to count toward the acreage needed to sustain new residents.
If Avimor is not annexed, Richter said, the development would close its public trails and reserve them just for residents.
“We have prided ourselves in being a conservation community,” Richter said in the council workshop on Nov. 16. “We use less water, preserve the land and less power per home, we have been inclusive and invite everyone to come up and use our facilities. Would like to not make it exclusive, and that is why we are here before you.”
According to previous Statesman reporting, Richter has threatened to privatize Avimor’s trails for years during City Council meetings about annexation.
But Avimor doesn’t have the final say about that. Avimor would have to go through a comprehensive-plan amendment process with approval from the Ada County commissioners to close its parks, said Scott Koberg, Ada County Parks and Waterways director, in an email provided to the Statesman. Koberg sent the email in response to a question from Eagle resident Helen Carter, who asked if Avimor could immediately close the trails to the public.
Avimor’s recreation plan, which is a component of its comprehensive plan, was last amended and approved by commissioners in December 2017, Koberg said.
What is next for Eagle and Avimor?
The city relies heavily on one-time growth-related fees to fund its budget. That is why in the first 10 years of annexation, the city makes money, and why the revenue drops off later.
“That just the way our tax structure is,” said Pierce in a phone interview.
He said the workshops with Avimor were to come up with ways to mitigate those costs. Now he is waiting to see what the developer proposes.
“We can’t go back previously before annexing 10,000 homes and look at what could we have done differently — that is what we get to do with a project like this,” Pierce said.
“We look for the developers to come to the city and say, ‘Hey we understand the big expense is parks,’ and what could they do?” Pierce said. “One of the big assets is the open space and trails that Avimor has. Could that be handed over to the city?”
One group of Eagle residents does not want annexation.
SOS Eagle is concerned about growth and development in Eagle. Its members want to stop or slow down the annexation process.
“We don’t believe that annexing this 23,000-acre development in the Foothills is beneficial to the city of Eagle, particularly in the long term,” said Mary Hunter, part of SOS Eagle, in a Zoom call with the Statesman. “I went up there the other day and the salesman out there said this is the biggest development in the history of Idaho. That is stunning. We need to take our time in trying to annex.”
Ann Joslin, another SOS Eagle member, said in a Zoom call that in the workshops throughout the last year, the only explanation she heard for why Avimor wants to join Eagle is to make the development process easier, by going through one entity rather than three counties.
Richter did not respond to multiple phone messages requesting comment about the development.
The workshop earlier this month marked the conclusion of the series. Pierce said the next step is for Avimor to put in an application for annexation.
Marc Grubert, an Avimor resident and owner of Spring Creek Brewing Co. in Avimor, said the annexation debate seems like “a nothing burger.”
“We are shopping and getting services from Eagle anyway,” Grubert said in a phone interview. “We support their businesses, they support our businesses. I am not sure what (annexation) does from a resident standpoint.”
He said most of his customers are Avimor and Eagle residents.
“Our kids all go to Eagle schools and we get support from the Eagle Fire Department,” Grubert said. “It feels like we are part of it, so the annexation sounds and feels more procedural than anything else.”
A lot of questions remain from Eagle residents, but the workshops between the City Council and Avimor were not designed to allow public input. There will be public hearings once Avimor puts in an application for annexation, but residents worry that may be too late for their words to hold any weight against the proposal.
“(The City Council has) a different world view, and they look at things through that lens,” said Janet Bushert, an SOS Eagle member. “They want to grow out versus up.”
Ridgeway added, “The City Council has the idea that if we are not growing we are dying. And that is not a nationally recognized economic plan.”
This story was originally published December 2, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
