Developments / Progress

We continue to pursue our objective of free access by the citizens of Idaho to this area and we would welcome your assistance, input and support.   If you are able to make a donation to help us defray what may evolve to be significant expenses or volunteer to help us work on this problem, please see YOU Can Help! for details.

In addition to signing the path as a "dismount zone," Garden City posted "Closed from Dusk to Dawn" signs all over the Greenbelt in 2010.

When contacted by a Statesman reporter, Mayor Evans said that the Greenbelt is indeed closed from dusk to dawn for the protection of the good citizens of Garden City.  Not only that, but he says Garden City's code mirrors that of Boise and Boise's Greenbelt is also closed in the evening hours.  (Boise, of course, has not had the poor judgment to slap these signs all over a treasured public amenity like the Boise River Greenbelt!)

The reason is probably this...  according to both Boise and Garden City Code, the Greenbelt is considered a public park and it is not lighted.  Therefore, it is closed in both Boise and Garden City, EXCEPT FOR TRANSIT THROUGH THE PARK!  So, unless you are planning to throw a loud party on the path, you are perfectly within your rights to be on the Greenbelt on your way from one place to another, no matter what the time of day.  

 Mayor Evans' signs and his statements are contrary to his own City Code!

For the past 20 years bicycle riders travelling west from Glenwood on the north side of the river had to detour from the River to Riverside Drive, to Arney, out to 55mph State Street, back towards the River on Ulmer, through Lakeland Village to eventually, HOPEFULLY hook up to Eagle's Greenbelt sometime in 2008.  Due to pressure from COG, Mayor Evans finally concocted the infamous "Wakefield Detour" which does prevent the State Street portion of the route. 

So now we have a "greenbelt" path that surreptitiously snakes through two subdivisions on city streets, past 44 driveways and 28 intersections and along newly paved utility easements.  There are places where this new path is no more than six feet wide - it does not meet code.   Directional signs are conspicuously lacking.  Finding the route is next to impossible! 

We doubt seriously that this token route away from State Street would have been opened at all if there had not been pressure from COG to open the Riverside Village pathway.  We believe the route was completed by the city simply to divert attention from the real issue. 

Evans was claiming at one time that portions of the path were owned by approximately 30 private landowners.  Although this was never proved to be true, we did discover that when the lands were deeded by the developers (IFI, Project Manager, John Evans & Evans Brothers Construction) to Garden City, there were discrepancies. 

 Some of the parcels were actually double deeded - first to the City, then to various Homeowner Associations, in flagrant violation of the terms of the Agreement.

 We brought this to the attention of the Attorney General as part of the investigation in 2008 and our findings were corroborated.  Garden City was required to work with the developers to correct this situation and we believe that all portions of the Bike Path in Garden City are now properly owned by the public.