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Boise, Idaho and Developers OK Tentative Greenbelt Plan

Posted on: Tuesday, 20 September 2005, 18:00 CDT

Sep. 20--The city of Boise and Harris Ranch developers say they have reached tentative agreement on the route for the Boise River Greenbelt through the 1,700-acre planned community in East Boise.

The path would roughly parallel the Boise River and Alta Harris Creek through the Harris Ranch project and connect with Lystad Road near the Idaho Shakespeare Festival.

"Harris Ranch and the city are in substantial agreement about where path should go, right now language is the issue," said David Selvage, Boise parks design and development manager.

The Greenbelt is a biking and hiking trail that extends more than 20 miles from near Eagle Island to Lucky Peak Reservoir. Most of it runs along the river, but the existing paved pathway on the north side veers away near Warm Springs Golf Course, and parallels Warm Springs Avenue past the Harris Ranch community and the Idaho Shakespeare Festival.

The 2002 city-approved Harris Ranch masterplan called for the pathway to return to the river east of the golf course, and parallel the river to Old Eckert Road. Negotiations since then have sited the Greenbelt along the river and Alta Harris Creek from Eckert Road to the west edge of the Mill District in Harris Ranch, for a total of more than two miles of paved pathway.

Last week, city parks staff and Harris Ranch agreed to a path location through the remainder of the Harris Ranch property just north of Alta Harris Creek, which is within 200 feet of the Boise River. And in a meeting Monday night, the Boise Planning and Zoning Commission voted to clarify that no development can take place between the Greenbelt and the river in a 15-acre zone south of the Harris Ranch Mill District.

The city Planning and Zoning Commission voted Aug. 29 to accept a series of modifications to the 60 conditions of approval for the development. But on Monday, the commission voted to clarify language in two pathway provisions to ensure that the pathway area remains natural and that the pathways remain public.

Harris Ranch project manager Doug Fowler credited P&Z commissioners and staff for working to resolve the confusion.

"We are not going to build houses on Alta Harris Creek or Boise River," Fowler said. "We never were."

With P&Z clarifications approved and with Greenbelt negotiations nearing completion, Harris Ranch has taken several of the steps it needs to resume the 3,100-home project.

This summer, Harris Ranch developers and the Ada County Highway District reached agreement on building the stalled East ParkCenter Bridge, construction of which is necessary for development beyond Harris Ranch's current 419 homes. Bridge construction will begin in 2008, but Harris Ranch developers say that with the bridge agreement in place they will seek permission to resume home-building -- possibly within a year.

While the focus before the P&Z Commission was on one 580-foot section of pathway at the eastern edge of Harris Ranch, for longtime Greenbelt advocates the issue was the integrity of the riverside Greenbelt vision that dates to the 1960s.

"When I first moved here in 1986, there was no Greenbelt in Barber Valley. We'd run along the old railroad tracks along Warm Springs Avenue and get goatheads in our shoes," said Tom Lopez, who regularly commutes on the Greenbelt on his bicycle from Warm Springs Mesa to his downtown office. "The pathway sets Boise apart from other cities. Enhancement of the Greenbelt enhances all our lives."

So much progress has been made on the Greenbelt in 30 years, said Lopez, that completing the vision is critical.

"I feel cautiously optimistic that both sides recognize the value of the Greenbelt to the city and its citizens," he said.

According to Selvage, the parks department and Harris Ranch developers met last week and informally agreed on the location of the path east of an Idaho Power Co. corridor to Lystad Road.

Now, Selvage said, city officials and Harris Ranch need to agree on the exact wording.

"We are going to continue working together to get this worked out," Selvage said.

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Source: The Idaho Statesman, Boise

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