Murgoitio Park. Is it on or off?By: David King, President, Friends of Murgoitio Park

“A pregnant pause is a silence full of potential in the way a pregnant body is full of a new human being.   A pregnant pause leaves the listener full of anticipation, just like a pregnancy is full of excitement about the forthcoming baby.”[i]

Mayor Lauren McLean knows how to use an “unpregnant pause” to cause Boise communities to lose their sense of anticipation and to dissipate all excitement about that which they oppose.

I recently went to a friend’s wedding who is deeply engaged in local politics, from his Boise State campus days to the present date. He even planned to run for city council but does not live in one of the three districts in play. The subject of Murgoitio Park came up, and he got a confused look on his face, “Wait, isn’t that over?”

For months, I have communicated about Murgoitio Park with several staff members of Attorney General Wasden’s office. One his most senior staff attorneys recently inquired, “It’s over now, right?”

The answer is “No, it’s far from over.”

Mayor McLean still intends to develop Murgoitio Park, and the City is still working on this development project. Today, the City is still paying an outside law firm exorbitant fees to study the FAA implications of removing the covenants that prohibit development of Murgoitio Park.  The FAA legal services were announced at a City Council Work Sessions on July 20, 2021, and Aug. 10, 2021, and a report is expected soon.

These legal services, performed for the City of Boise—at the City’s request, direction, and compensation—are ongoing work by the City to pursue development of Murgoitio Park.  Since this work is being done by a law firm, it is subject to the attorney-client privilege, and the City will withhold records related to these legal services.

Although the City is continuing to work on the project, due to McLean’s three unpregnant pauses, most of the public is confused and disengaged.

Pause One: The Mayor first paused the development of Murgoitio Park on the afternoon of July 19, 2021. The press posted a photo of Murgoitio Park with large red letters “Deal’s Off.”

From the outset, the foothills land swap proposal was legally untenable because Murgoitio Park is worth multiples of the undevelopable land Harris would have exchanged for it. We identified this “legal” non-starter from the outset, but Mayor McLean claimed she was ending the swap out of prudent economic stewardship:

“In light of this [appraisal], and with knowledge of recent bids on land adjacent to the Murgoitio parcel, the proposed trade agreement doesn’t make financial sense for Boise residents and is no longer under consideration.”

Only one day later, at a City Council Work Session on July 20, 2021, the Mayor and Jennifer Tomlinson notified the City that the annexation and map amendment of Murgoitio Park was still coming before the Planning and Zoning Commission on August 9, 2021, as originally planned. The project was so indispensable to the Mayor’s plans for Boise’s housing development, it would remain on an accelerated schedule, even with the project’s particulars being unknown.

At the July 20, 2021, Work Session, Mayor McLean announced that her 24-hour pause was over, and housing was coming to Murgoitio Park:

“We are having a conversation and meeting with neighborhood leaders this week and will continue to have a conversation about the best way to get what Boiseans need most right now, which is affordable housing.”

Pause Two: On July 29, 2021, Murgoitio Park was removed from the August 9, 2021, Planning and Zoning Commission annexation and map amendment project.

The implications of the August 9, 2021, Planning and Zoning Commission Hearing were inexplicable as far as Murgoitio Park was concerned, because as Co-Chair Bob Schafer said, the city has “made a mess of this process.” This caused some in the local media to report that development of Murgoitio Park is on ice.

To be continued.

[i]  Jon Baker, The Pregnant Pause – How Staying Silent Can Help You Sell More, accountingweb, Aug. 8, 2016.