Local News
Setting the Record Straight and Moving Forward
Harris Ranch residents and community members have raised questions about the source of Your Baber Valley, and we wish to clarify the source of this website. Your Barber Valley is a community resource provided by friends of Harris Ranch. We aim to respond to rumors and hollow rhetoric with simple facts that are credible and cited.
The Harris family has been exemplary citizens of Boise and the Barber Valley for some 70 years. For the last two years, the Harris Family, Barber Valley Development, and LeNir have endured false and defamatory accusations by the Harris Ranch Community Infrastructure District Taxpayers Association (HRCIDTA) and their efforts to cast a shadow over the development. We cannot allow a one-sided, false narrative to be perpetrated by a handful of misguided individuals.
It is not only our opinion that the HRCIDTA’s narrative is false; an Ada County Court judge dismissed 16 of 16 claims brought by Bill Doyle, Larry Crowley, and the HRCIDTA. Yet, after every claim they brought before the court and an attempt to retry the case were both denied, the HRCIDTA appealed to the Idaho Supreme Court, extending the earliest timeline to resolution at least into late 2024. Crucially, as the CID Board uses CID funds to pay for its legal defense, no matter which way the suit is settled, homeowners will have lost at least $700,000 from CID coffers that could have been spent in their neighborhood. Furthering the damage to homeowners, the costs that the HRCIDTA litigation has caused the CID to incur are accruing interest at 10.5%, wasting more homeowner dollars with every passing day.
We know the residents of Harris Ranch want to see the development completed, as laid out in the Harris Ranch Specific Plan nearly 20 years ago. Despite the continuous attempts to block progress in Harris Ranch, the project is moving forward. All entities involved with developing Harris Ranch are working with the City of Boise to resume planning and related pre-construction efforts on major amenities in Harris Ranch, including Alta Harris Park, Murray Ponds, and the Harris Ranch Town Center. Regarding Alta Harris Park, while the city of Boise owns the property and is responsible for building the park, Harris Ranch is voluntarily assisting with development and is in discussion to aid in financing to ensure Alta Harris Park has a path to completion.
Restarting planning efforts despite the ongoing litigation is a vote of confidence that the lawsuits surrounding the CID will be resolved and the projects brought to fruition. Resuming the planning process now ensures that when the HRCID litigation is resolved and funds are made available, construction can begin immediately.
Possible CID Settlement: HRCIDTA Ignored Offer to cut CID Taxes by 50%
In a previous article, we cited a BoiseDev story that alluded to a settlement offer it was looking into that would ostensibly end the litigation brought by the Harris Ranch CID Taxpayers’ Association against Barber Valley Development, the Harris Family Limited Partnership, and the Harris Ranch CID Board. While BoiseDev may not yet have received a response to its public records request, Your Barber Valley has confirmed the existence of that offer.
On Thursday, July 13, Barber Valley Development circulated a signed settlement offer that would reduce CID taxes for all residents in the Harris Ranch CID by ten percent per year for each of the next five years, resulting in a 50% yearly reduction in payments. The condition of the offer was that pending litigation be dropped and that approved and outstanding bonds be funded. The offer was contingent upon Harris Ranch CID Board approval, which would in turn require discussion at a public meeting of the HRCID. The offer was sent to Larry Crowley, President of the HRCIDTA, with a response requested by Tuesday, July 18.
The offer would have been a compromise that would allow progress in Harris Ranch to continue, funding amenities stalled by more than two years due to the litigation. Under the terms of the offer, progress could indeed have restarted, albeit at a slower pace with fewer dollars in CID coffers to fund improvements. (more…)
Headed to the Idaho Supreme Court, Questions Surround HRCIDTA
With a recent appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court, the litigation surrounding the Harris Ranch CID (HRCID) appears to finally be headed to a resolution. Still, a date for the hearing before the Supreme Court is not yet set and this latest legal maneuver is sure to extend the wait for development of parks and other amenities well into 2024. The continued extension of this litigation begs the question as to who is promoting this delay and why? And do they represent the wishes of Harris Ranch homeowners?
The Harris Ranch CID Taxpayers’ Association (HRCIDTA) bills itself as a group of homeowners with a grievance against the operators of the HRCID and the HRCID itself. Adjudication through the legal system is certainly their right, but the group has only two public-facing members – Larry Crowley and William (Bill) Doyle – and lacks many components common to grassroots organizations of this sort. With no website, signage, or campaigning of any kind beyond word of mouth in the community and internal messaging, the public is left to decipher the many quotes from Crowley and Doyle provided to the media and at public hearings. With no external communication or advocacy efforts, it appears all funds raised from supporters are going to attorneys executing the group’s many legal actions. 
Your Barber Valley wrote about Larry Crowley and the misinformation he provided at a HRCID Board Meeting in July 2021. Crowley is also a Commissioner on the City of Boise’s Public Works Commission, tasked with advising the City of Boise, including its City Council. This public position would seemingly put Crowley at odds with himself, as he is charged with providing sound guidance to the Boise City Council on Public Works matters all the while leading a group suing those same Council members who also serve as members of the HRCID Board.
Bill Doyle has a shorter history in Boise. From public records, it appears that Doyle moved to Idaho in 2019 from California. Doyle was an attorney in the Bay Area until 2018 when he was suspended from practicing law in the state by the State Bar Court of California for two separate incidents.
The organization Crowley and Doyle oversee — the HRICDTA — brought 16 claims against the HRCID in a 2022 lawsuit. The HRCIDTA was denied on all 16. Their request for rehearing was also denied. It is unclear why they would expect a different decision from the Idaho Supreme Court. Further challenging their claims against the validity of CIDs are the recent expansions of other CIDs in the Treasure Valley, including $300 million in CID projects for 8,700 homes in Avimor and at least $156 million for 7,100 homes in Valnova (formerly Spring Valley). With these other CIDs moving forward and with prior legal determinations validating the legality of those CIDs and the CID statute itself, the odds are stacked against the HRCIDTA. Crowley, Doyle, and the HRCIDTA are now betting that their arguments are correct and that the opinions of the Idaho State Legislature, two Ada County judges, the HRCID Board, the local governments who considered petitions to form CIDs (including the City of Boise, the City of Eagle, and Ada County), and developers of both Avimor and Valnova are collectively in the wrong. (more…)
Public Financing Districts – Common nationwide, new to Idaho
Though it has existed for nearly 16 years, the last two years has had much discussion and debate about the Harris Ranch Community Infrastructure District (HRCID). Though the statute that allowed for Community Infrastructure Districts was passed by the Idaho Legislature in 2008, the HRCID is still the only community in the state to put the statute and the development tools it created into significant use. A handful of other communities have CIDs in place and have financed (or are in the process of financing) community infrastructure, but the HRCID was the first, and to date remains the only, community that has regularly issued bonds that help development pay for itself, resulting in the premium neighborhood that has proven so attractive to its residents.
It is always a challenge to be the first to do anything. But even though it is a first for Idaho, community infrastructure districts are increasingly common throughout the country. This is true of many of the most successful planned communities throughout the country. In fact, a recent report by the real estate consulting firm RCLCO listed the top 50 master-planned communities in the United States. This report shows that 42 of the 50 ranked communities have public financing districts in place. Of these communities, which are located across the country, from California to Florida, and from Texas to Utah or South Carolina, more than 80 percent of America’s top developments leverage a public financing district. Or what we call in Idaho a community infrastructure district.
Here in Idaho, the HRCID is the first to employ a public financing district to allow for growth to pay for growth. It will not be the last. And as the report by RCLCO shows, this financing model is consistent with many of the most successful planned communities in the country.