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.

Read the RCLCO report here.

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.