Boise City Council denies Eyrie Terraces appeal

The Boise City Council denied an appeal on Dec. 10 for a hillside development permit for the Eyrie Terraces subdivision, a project that generated numerous public comments in opposition.

The Planning & Zoning Commission rejected the permit and accompanying preliminary plat on Sept. 16. During the one and a half hours of public testimony on the appeal, one person argued in favor of the development and 24 were opposed, citing fire and geotechnical concerns.

The property owner was Kipp Bedard and the developer was Connell Development.

“Of course we’re disappointed,” said attorney Deborah Nelson of the Givens Pursley law firm, who represented Connell in the appeal. Nelson did not know what actions the developer might take next.

The submitted preliminary plat for the Eyrie Terraces subdivision had 30 buildable residential lots on steeply-sloped terrain south of the Quail Hollow Golf Course. The proposed development used approximately 21 acres of a 64 acres parcel. The area is zoned for single residence homes with a limit of two units per acre. The land is classified as part of the wildland-urban interface for the purposes of fire control. The parcel is also subject to Boise’s Foothills ordinance.

The original permit application was rejected on several grounds including:

• steep slopes over 25%
• over one million cubic yards of cut and fill, more than any other residential subdivision in Boise
• only one public access into the subdivision with emergency access more than a mile away
• most lots on three dead ends much longer than the code-recommended 750 feet
• a proposed access road crossing a privately-owned lot in the adjacent Eyrie Canyon subdivision described as unbuildable in a plat note in 2008.

Neither the developer nor owner have applied to vacate the 2008 plat note.

At the city council meeting, Nelson argued for the appeal on multiple grounds, “focusing on key technical issues” and “errors” made by P&Z and its staff:

• P&Z had used subjective but inadmissible grounds involving trail access and visual impact as part of the basis for its denial
• Based on extensive field work and evaluation, Nelson argued their engineering design adequately addressed the site’s conditions and that public works had acknowledged that.
• Public works’ recommendation to deny was based mostly on the Fire Department’s negative recommendation and on the large amount of cut and fill.
• Public works did list a number of items that needed amendment prior to approval of final site plans. The developer agreed to those amendments at the P&Z hearing and also in writing.
• Four dead ends in nearby subdivisions were much longer than 750 feet. The Fire Department had approved them because of adequate turn-arounds and sprinklers at every home. The roads and homes in Eyrie Terraces were designed to those same standards.
• The developer was willing to shorten all the streets and cut back to 18 lots in order to obtain approval.

Nelson also addressed several points that could inhibit an access road across the unbuildable lot. Most germane was her argument that: “The city can not legally restrict a property’s right to access a public street. That’s (the Ada County Highway Department’s) jurisdiction and ACHD has approved this (street) extension.”

This property has had problems with access rights in the past. In 2017, Kipp Bedard sued Boise for preventing a public access road from the west. This road would have branched off 36th Street and crossed Quail Hollow Golf Course. Bedard claimed a right-of-way easement based on one granted to a previous owner. The city claimed the easement was not permanent and no longer applied. The case went before the Idaho Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the city.

Don Johnson, assistant fire marshal for Boise, told the Council that the fire safety issues were not limited to the length of the dead-end roads. He said that multiple factors had been considered in the Fire Department’s recommendation against the subdivision.

“It’s the overall road network, what other dead ends there are, the secondary access points … the closest one is a mile away.”

He added that the Fire Department also looked at the slope analysis, the topography and the amount of area they had to defend on the steep grade.

After almost two and a half hours, the Council upheld the permit denial, mainly due to fire safety and the proposed cut and fill. In a follow-up memo on the Council’s decision, the assistant director of the planning department, Cody Riddle, wrote: “The project includes more than 80’ of cut and 70’ of fill in certain locations. The geotechnical analysis only studied soil conditions to a depth of 18’. This is inadequate given the depth and volume of earthwork proposed.”

The memo also stated the developer could reapply for a hillside permit and preliminary plat and listed the items that would need to change to gain approval from the city.