Eagle City Council approves Avimor annexation

EAGLE — A proposal annex Avimor, the planned development community, into the City of Eagle was approved by Eagle’s City Council last week. The vote was 3-1.

Before moving to a vote before the city council, the application was rejected by the Eagle Planning & Zoning Commission, due to two conflicting economic impact studies–one commissioned by the City of Eagle, and the other by Avimor‘s representatives.

“The fiscal analysis of the city was done properly. It’s just that it was set the way a city typically grows,” Avimor President Dan Ritchter said. “Avimor is building the parks, and that’s why they said there was a $10 million deficit….”

The annexation will bring Avimor’s residents into the city limits of Eagle, making them property taxpayers and recipients of city services. The sprawling community has been developing more than 17,000 acres spanning parts of Ada, Boise, and Gem counties. A self-annexed Avimor would get to decide what their density is and what the design guidelines are, but now Eagle has control over that.

Mayor Jason Pierce said the annexation will immediately generate $300,000 to the city, and more moving forward.

Ritchter said Avimor’s development will open up the foothills for recreation and preserve thousands of acres of public foothills and trails, creating roughly 10,000 acres of open space including hundreds of miles of trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding.

“Rocky Canyon, where so many people who grew up in Eagle went to, we’re going to do a several hundred-acre park that we give to either the City of Eagle or to the state reserve because it’s just a jewel,” Ritchter said. “We’d like to preserve that.”