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…)
Did HRCIDTA President Larry Crowley Misrepresent What He Actually Knew About the Harris Ranch CID Before Buying His Home?
At the Harris Ranch CID Board meeting on July 20, 2021, a concerning issue was raised by HRCIDTA president Larry Crowley during his testimony in front of the Board. The issue was about an alleged lack of disclosure about the CID in homebuyers’ closing documents. His quote, directly from the transcript HRCID Board transcriptof the meeting, reads:
“We purchased our house just over 3 years ago and, at that time, received no notification, no disclosure, or any idea of the impact that the CID would have on our property taxes. It wasn’t until we received our first property tax bill in 2019 that we began looking into it and trying to figure out where all of this money came from and where is it going and how does it get there. So, the disclosure issue is a really important one. As Bill points out, when we went through closing, we went through all my closing documents. We’ve refinanced a couple of times, and there is no disclosure statement included in any of the closing documents from our transaction.”
Failing to disclose the CID to a homebuyer is a serious accusation, and one that helped Crowley and the HRCIDTA stake a position as an aggrieved party.
However, Mr. Crowley’s statement to the Harris Ranch CID Board does not appear to be accurate.
Documentation shows that Mr. Crowley was very well informed of the CID throughout the homebuying process. According to documents filed in response to HRCIDTA claims and available on the HRCID’s website, Mr. Crowley was told that the home he and his wife were buying was included in the CID on several occasions. Disclosures included:
- March 12, 2018 – email to Crowley’s real estate agent confirming that the home was in the CID
- May 10, 2018 – The Real Estate Purchase and Sale Agreement, signed and initialed by Crowley and his wife on each page, including on page 2 where the first item under Additional Terms and/or Conditions reads in bold, “1) Buyer acknowledges Property is in the Community CID taxing district.”
- October 31, 2018 – as part of the title process, Crowley and his wife signed an Acknowledgement and Approval of Title Commitment, CCR’s, and Plat Map document, which mentions the CID 7 times and includes a buyers’ acknowledgement and approval of, “Terms, covenants, conditions, restrictions, easements, and obligations, if any, contained in Resolution No. 20895 by the City of Boise City, declaring formation of the Harris Ranch Community Infrastructure District No. 1..
Click here for link to exhibits
Clearly, the suggestion that Mr. Crowley did not have knowledge of the Harris Ranch CID before purchasing his property is not accurate. (more…)
Denied Again: HRCIDTA Loses Bid to Retry Case
The Harris Ranch CID Taxpayers’ Association (HRCIDTA) were denied their latest attempt to convince a court to meddle with the Harris Ranch CID. In late July, an Ada County judge denied the HRCIDTA’s request to grant a re-hearing of the case it lost in April, when all 16 of its claims against the Harris Ranch CID were struck down.
The HRCIDTA appears to have requested the re-hearing without bringing new evidence or providing new information for the court’s consideration. Instead, they simply restated their arguments. In the decision, the judge wrote:
“The Court finds many of Petitioners’ arguments on the Petition for Rehearing, including those relating to the CID Act’s “fronting” exclusion, the “public ownership” requirement, and several of Petitioners’ constitutional arguments largely restate arguments already presented to the Court on the Petition for Judicial Review and prior motions.”
Lacking a reason to grant a re-hearing, the judge opted not to waste court and legal resources to re-examine what had just been examined. We now wait to see whether the HRCIDTA will pursue an appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court, which will in turn continue to delay development of CID-eligible amenities at Harris Ranch.