Response to “Blackfoot, We Have a Problem”

Karen Schumacher has her stuff together. In both part 1 and part 2 of her opinion article she lays out numerous facts and data which should have raised red flags by the Blackfoot City Council had they been presented to them, and they were willing to listen, in regard to the decision to approve a new development. For two members it did create more questions than answers, and they voted no. The mayor broke the tie.

Highland Heights includes twenty single family homes and 128 so-called Town Homes, which in reality are apartments even if they can be purchased. All of this is on 18 acres of land which abuts an existing neighborhood, Coopers Cove just off East Airport Road in Blackfoot. The main entrance to the development is through Coopers Way, the first street in Coopers Cove. The second entrance will be off Highland Drive, another narrow residential street. I live in Coopers Cove. It is a quiet neighborhood with only two long blocks and one short one. The streets are “residential” according to city code measurements: 60 feet including five-foot sidewalks and five-foot( +/-) reserves on both sides. They only have 32 feet 11 inches of actual asphalt or driveable surface.

In Blackfoot’s Comprehensive Plan, page 22, the city agrees that “zoning should focus on promoting the health, safety, and general welfare of people within the community.” And it mostly does, if it’s followed. But putting 100 to 125 more vehicles a day down Coopers Way with its 32 ft 11 inches of roadway, does not promote the safety of people living along it.

The City Council has at some point decided that the solution to affordable housing is the unlimited construction of Town Homes and apartment complexes. In case you haven’t noticed, they are all over town now. However, a sentence on page 23 in the Land Use Chapter of the Comprehensive Plan clearly states, “To ensure that new development is complementary and consistent with surrounding development.” Highland Heights is not. That section also states, “To avoid undue concentration of populations and overcrowding of land.” 148 homes on 18 acres of land does not avoid this either. In a later section, I will show how all this apartment building is not the best solution to affordable housing.

Many Coopers Cove residents have diligently attended Planning and Zoning meetings, where we expressed our concerns both in writing and orally when permitted. Facts were presented about lot sizes not meeting codes, that the developers included streets and common spaces to inflate their lot size calculations, about faulty traffic studies, about its border against an old landfill, about insufficient water studies. All of this to no avail. P&Z approved sending it to the city council with two conditions: An actual count of traffic be done and further water studies be conducted.

I don’t know if the council members had the opportunity to view the plan and learn facts about the PUD prior to the meeting, but it didn’t seem so. The zoning administrator presented his own version of facts to the city council. Those two conditions were left out completely and other untruths regarding facts and findings presented to the P&Z were stated. At no time during the explanation of the plat plan did the administrator even mention, in fact seemed to scrupulously avoid mentioning that the development’s south border abuts the old Bingham County Ridge Street Landfill (now Wooten Way). It was closed sometime in the late sixties. Monitoring wells indicate that it continues to emit methane gas and other toxic substances. Its ground water is also toxic.

This border is where Highland Heights plans two of its “open green spaces.” These two are actually storage water catch basins. Usually, these are fenced off and are not open to the public. Originally, the DEQ did not allow these basins so close to the landfill, but at some point that decision was reversed. I do not know why. But the fact remains that the landfill is still toxic. It appears that these two spaces will remain open for resident use.

As well, the administrator said that single family houses are on ALL perimeters of the plan. A simple look at the plan shows that they are only on two sides and that there are only twenty of them, versus 128 apartments. Let’s face it the only discernible difference between “town homes” and some apartments is their height. The hodgepodge of “open green spaces” does not provide adequate space in any one space for even moderate activities for children and teens. And most of them border the old landfill.

There is much more that the administrator failed to note, by design or neglect, I cannot say. He said that in the Facts and Findings report given to the Planning and Zoning committee at their vote on the PUD, there was no mention of the need for water studies or a more accurate traffic study. They are both in there. He should know. He prepared the Facts and Findings report himself.

There was very little mention of the streets that form entrances and exits for the PUD. The plat plan doesn’t even get the street names correct. It incorrectly names Coopers Way as Hillridge. Coopers Way is a residential street, but will in effect become a “collector” street for the development. It does not meet collector requirements. Neither does Hillridge.

But let’s do a little simple math about “renting apartments.”pg 70 &42 of Blackfoot’s Comprehensive Plan indicates the median family income in 2022 was $57,951. Median is arranging all the data from lowest to highest and averaging the two in the middle. I think a more accurate method is to use the mode, the most frequently occurring number which would, by my guess, put it closer to just $50,000. But let’s say in 2026 it might have risen to $57,000. Though with the recent layoff of 100 employees at a local manufacturing company, that might be just wishful thinking.

Take that Fifty-seven thousand on a yearly basis for a family of four.

Rent: @1400 per month (and that would be a cheap one) per year	$16,800
Food @ 575 per month (low estimate for 4)	$6,900
Car payment(s) 1200 per month	$14,400
Insurance auto (s) 450 per six months	$900
Utilities: if not rent included, 200	$2,400
Automobiles: gas, maintenance, etc. 150 per month	$2,400
Cable, Dish or Fybercom, internet if not included in rent 275	$3,300
Clothing especially if small children, shoes, etc 200 per month	$2,400
Health Insurance (one member) if don’t qualify for assistance 600	$7,200
	$56,100

These are all fairly low estimates. You can’t do it on $57,000 a year.

$900 per year left for entertainment, incidentals, childcare, Christmas, trips to see Granparents. We could trim some things, for example, no dish or cable TV, get an even older, cheaper car, eat more macaroni and cheese, go to the food bank, etc, but it is still slim pickings as far as any savings go.

 And suppose by some miracle, you manage to save and actually put away $1500 a year. Even with interest, it would take more than 15 years to accumulate $25,000 for a down payment. And that’s not enough. There is no way to save any extra money for a future down payment on a house. This does not solve the affordable housing problem that is purported to exist in Blackfoot. It simply creates perpetual renters in what will eventually become substandard housing.

I don’t think any of us living in Coopers Cove would have worried much if VanOrden and Trejo had simply planned a similar development as we now have. Kids ride bikes, families get out for walks, and stop and talk to the neighbors. I for one enjoy watching sunsets from my front porch. But no more. I’ll just see the tall gray backs of “Town Homes.”

In the future, when the City Council is making decisions about proposed developments that directly affect adjoining neighborhoods, each of its members should be required to visit such sites in person, and consider in advance all the facts, not just those provided by the developer and the P&Z administrator. Thanks to the people who serve, but I think decisions such as this deserve much more of their time than an hour at a meeting.

Writer James Clear explores habits and decision making and continuous improvement. His book, Atomic Habits, sold 25 million copies in at least 60 languages. So obviously, we’re interested in such things. His long article Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds in particular deals with decision making. I won’t go into a synopsis of it, but I do recommend reading it. He begins the article with quotes from two well-known persons. Economist John Kenneth Galbraith once wrote: “Faced with a choice between changing one’s mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy with the proof.”

Leo Tolstoy was even braver according to Clear. “The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow doubt, what is laid before him.”

Hmm? Think either of these might be happening with our local governing boards?