Saundra McDavid

Rumor: Saundra sued the City twice in the last six months.

Fact: I have NEVER sued the City. During the campaign, I never was shown the paperwork that Mayor Bandy was waving around in support of this allegation; however I suspect he was holding Judicial Review paperwork. A Judicial Review is an appeal of the city’s land use decisions. It is an appeal process provided for anyone who feels as if his or her rights have been violated by the city. An official entity has to look over the shoulder of our city officials, otherwise imagine the corruption that would occur. Since we don’t have any official organization that reviews the city council’s decisions within our own city or county, the body that oversees our city council decisions is the district court. A judicial review is a process of appeal. It is not a lawsuit – there are no plaintiffs and defendants. Our city leaders know the difference, they chose to mislead the public in order to win an election.

A brief history of the chain of events that led up to this judicial review decision is as follows:

The city sent out legal notices that the land west of Linder road would be rezoned. During the process the zoning administrator decided to add a square mile of land east of Linder as a “transition” area. No notices were sent out about this change. What resulted was a new comprehensive plan which provided detailed planning areas for many areas of the city which experienced a zoning change. The East Linder area was left out. No details were provided on what this “transition” area should look like or how lots should transition down to higher densities. It simply stated that now all land which was previously one unit per two acres was now rezoned to two units per acre. Four homes, where previously there would have been one. Equestrian lots were thus eliminated, as was the open space that comes with these larger estate lots; it was a major lifestyle change.

People who had purchased in this area had been told by their realtors that the area north of Floating Feather would always be two acre lots, transitioning up to five acre lots. They bought into a lifestyle. It was widely known that Eagle was the city to move to if you wanted to live on a large lot, but still live in city limits. Thus, we were understandably shocked when it was discovered that the comprehensive plan had been changed, and changed so dramatically.

The Park Place Gardens subdivision (now Shaunnessey) east of Linder road then presented a development plan for the maximum density allowed under this new comprehensive plan. With the density bonuses given to planned unit developments the lot sizes were far smaller than half acre lots. The proposed development was surrounded by existing subdivisions which had two and five acre lots. It simply did not fit into the surrounding community. The public outcry was enormous. A group of citizens were outraged over the “sneaky” comprehensive plan change, and hired an attorney to represent them at the P&Z and City Council meetings. I was not involved in this group, although I did contribute funds when my neighbors asked me for a donation to the legal fund. I believe the final attorney’s bill was nearly $20,000. At the end of the City Council hearing, I remember Mayor Merrill and Council person Sedlecek assuring those in attendance that the Park Place Gardens development did not fit within the area and would not be approved. I remember leaving that meeting relieved that the City understood our concerns and would act responsibly in the transitioning down to the higher densities. It was decided at that meeting that a committee would be formed and a comprehensive plan amendment would be prepared to address the transitioning in the East Linder area.

We then had the 2005 City Council election, Council person Sedlecek did not seek re-election and her seat was replaced by Councilman Bandy. The comprehensive plan amendment that was created in the committee was denied by the City Council. Park Place Gardens came back with another version of the development, which eliminated the smallest lots, but still contained no outside layer of matching lot sizes to transition from the existing two acre lot sizes of the neighboring subdivisions. There was also a proposal by Ted Martinez, (President of the Building Contractors Association) for the Bella Terra Development which provided no transitioning to the neighboring lots and contained lot sizes far smaller than a half an acre; and a proposal by Chad Moffat, which again provided no transitioning to the neighboring lots. The development proposals sailed through Planning and Zoning and the residents of the neighboring developments again became alarmed. What happened to the promises of the previous administration? The only change was the addition of Councilman Bandy; yet suddenly proper transitioning was no longer important to City Council.

By that time, after a year of hearings and countless testimony the residents were becoming disillusioned. We had the impression that our city was not interested in our concerns. Many people simply gave up and decided not to spend any more long nights waiting to testify at city hall. No one wanted to pay any more attorney’s fees. A smaller group decided to continue on and I became active in this group.

I spoke on the record in opposition to the developments, however all three of the developments were approved. It was then that Michael Huffaker and I filed a motion for mediation with the City Council. We asked the city council to appoint a neutral mediator because our due process rights had been violated by the lack of notice of the zoning changes, and because the developments that were approved did not transition or fit within the comprehensive plan. The city attorney, Susan Buxton, recommended denial of our motion, and the city council agreed with her recommendation and voted to deny our mediation motion. Michael Huffaker and I then worked independently with the developers of Park Place Gardens and came up with an agreement with them which resulted in a better transition to the existing neighboring lots. The other two developers did not work with us.

Michael Huffaker and I also drafted a comprehensive plan amendment that would address the transitioning in the East Linder Area and provide for a larger lot size; something that would apply to all new development applications in the East Linder area. We met with Mayor Nancy Merrill and presented our draft to her, with a request that it be included in the city’s next comprehensive plan amendment. She seemed agreeable to this and even suggested that the City could create a new zoning density of R1.5 (one and a half units per acre) which would be a more reasonable transition down from two and five acre lots.

During this meeting with Mayor Merrill, we mentioned that a group of citizens was considering filing a Judicial Review petition over the lack of notice and due process violations. Mayor Merrill encouraged the group to do so. She said that she wanted the matter of whether the notice of the zoning change was proper to be resolved once and for all. She said that she had asked the City Attorney if she could file a Judicial Review petition and the City Attorney told her that the City could not initiate it. Mayor Merrill repeatedly stated that she encouraged us to file the appeal and was looking forward to the outcome so that the City could finally put the matter to rest.

A group of ten or so individuals filed the judicial review petition shortly after that. I was not one of them, although I did support the group’s efforts and notarized some of their signatures.   A month or so later I asked Mayor Merrill about the comprehensive plan amendment that we had presented. She told me that the city council members were angry that the judicial review petition had been filed, and that they refused to include the amendment in the city’s recommended changes.

The city attorney then proceeded to spend the next year and thousands of the city’s dollars preventing the appeal from being heard by the judge. When the petitioners requested that only three hearings be transcribed (those hearings in which it was discussed the lack of notice on the zoning change) the city attorney insisted instead that dozens of hearings be transcribed (every meeting that mentioned the three developments that were approved) which drove the cost to the petitioners to exceed $20,000. The case was dismissed a year after it was filed when the petitioners did not pay the fee.

Now we’ll never know if the lack of notice on the zoning change was a violation of our due process. It makes it difficult to bring a city together when a large portion of the population believes the city violated their trust.

I was disappointed that Mayor Merrill did not speak up about the true facts of this chain of events during the campaign. Instead she said nothing as Councilman Bandy and the Ada County Association of Realtors were claiming that I sued the city twice. Mayor Bandy likewise had an opportunity during his campaign to correct the false statements spread by Ada County Association of Realtors. Instead, he chose to wave papers in the air claiming “The allegations are true.”

Did I sue the city? Absolutely not.

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