Preserve Plantation Neighborhood Canvass

Written by Dr. John Livingston.

Preserve Plantation Neighborhood has canvased our neighborhood this weekend and we have taken an arguably very rough poll of the 253 homeowners and 32 Edgewood Senior Living residents, in addition to several neighbors in Riverside Village and Lake Harbor communities who asked to receive our fliers regarding the new Special Area Plan (SAP) application that will be before the City Council starting this week.

First some numbers that are very important:

There are 253 homeowners in the neighborhood.

38 have property that is contiguous to the new development.

1/3-1/2 of property owners are members of The River Club which equals 80-120 member property owners.

The River Club Reports 800 active members only 30% who have an address in Garden City. The other 70% live outside Garden City or, like the owner Mr. Gustafson, don’t report an address.

One other general theme from our canvasing which is not unexpected but sad—“love thy neighbor”? The closer a neighbor is to the development—all phases, the more likely one is to be opposed to it. On Fair Oaks Place and at Edgewood only two out of 38 respondents were opposed or 97% opposed. On the other side of the golf course in Savannah Green only 56% were opposed and several asked to remain anonymous, though they agreed to canvas for us and have supported us monetarily and have worked for us. Two of those people were identified by the applicant as being for the project—they are not. 

Of the 38 neighbors most affected by the project, 32 openly support Preserve Plantation, four, maybe five, are openly opposed to the project and several others don’t want to announce their position, but two of them have contributed to our cause in cash anonymously for fear of retribution from The Club.

There were 51 people who were not at home.

My part of the canvas was on Fair Oaks and Plantation Drive—North Side where only three people were not opposed to the project. As we moved on to Plantation River Drive, like Savannah, only 68% were supportive of our position.

Overall, in our rough poll 77% of neighbors of the Plantation neighborhood and residents of Edgewood were supportive of our position against the (SAP).

I hope the City Fathers can understand that their constituents are the Neighbors of the Plantation Community—and now several neighbors in Riverside Village, Lake Harbor and businesses along the South Side of State Street. There are many businesses on the North Side of State Street that we didn’t count because they reside in Boise City but are still adamantly opposed to the project and are supporting us.

The City Fathers should not feel in any way compelled to represent the 560 non-Garden City Resident members of the River Club. They should not feel an obligation to represent the interests of an outside the State Developer with a highly leveraged capital position that nobody, including the City Fathers, knows who the ultimate creditor of record is. Will a bank or hedge fund in Singapore or Hong Kong ultimately decide what will happen to our open space should the developer have to deleverage their position as they use the asset to help leverage another investment property in some far away land or state?

Most homeowners and neighbors in the Plantation neighborhood and many other citizens of Garden City who reside in Riverside Village and Lake Harbor are absolutely against this project.

We have walked the streets 5 times over the past 6 months. City Fathers, all we ask is that you listen to the people and read our legal pleadings that are before you—written incidentally by several of the best contemporary and respected legal minds in Idaho and reviewed with the legal positions confirmed by another group of respected attorneys who live in Garden and Boise Cities.

If you follow the will of the people, your decision should be easy.