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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Batt Joins Opponents Of Flood-Plain Development Public Must Buy Land If It Wants No Building, Councilman Says

Associated Press

Gov. Phil Batt is siding with critics who call home building in the Boise River flood plain “foolish.”

He expressed his opinion in a letter to the editor of The Idaho Statesman soon after the Boise City Council approved the concept plan for the Harris Ranch development, which had proposed nearly 600 homes in the flood plain.

This week, developers took 78 flood-plain home sites out of their proposal, offering instead to turn the 35-acre site into a park. But it still leaves the potential for future flood-plain development.

If the public wants no development in the flood plain, it is going to have to buy the land from developers, Boise City Council member Mike Wetherell said. The city has highly regulated flood-plain development, but to ban it would be too costly, he said.

“I would agree that building in the flood plain is foolish. I’ve said that many times,” Wetherell said.

Batt did not address any particular project or developer. But he suggested developers post a bond that would prevent local, state and federal governments from paying for losses.

Batt acknowledged he lives in the flood plain in his state-owned home in southeast Boise.