As I watch the comments related to the parking issue at the Flying Heart Ranch continue to claim the loss of access to the river, I feel it is necessary to log in and clarify a few things.
First, I am intimately familiar with the Flying Heart Ranch as I and my wife lived on the ranch between 1973 and 1976. I also served on the Blaine County Planning and Zoning Commission at the time the Flying Heart Subdivision was approved in 1979.
I have spoken with Nick Purdy, chairman at the time, in regards to parking. Our collective recall of the situation is the developers offered an easement for access to the river and an easement along the east edge of the river. At no time was a parking issue discussed. The road was to remain private and maintained at the homeowners’ expense. These are included in the plat notes approved in 1979. There is no mention of public parking because it was never discussed or addressed.
The plat for this subdivision has been amended no less than 18 times since 1979 and at no time in any of those amendments, many of which were lot splits, did the county ever seek to address the parking issue. Now, some 41 years after the original plat approval, the county is claiming parking rights. This issue is not about access, as an access easement was granted in 1979. This issue is about the county dropping the ball for 41 years and now deciding they are entitled to something that was never part of the original plat.
The county is going after a parking lot that never was and likely never will be. This is certainly an issue of private property rights. The county can spend all the money they want but the evidence from the original does not show a parking lot anywhere. There are other subdivisions in the county that have private roads with no parking—Gimlet and Griffin Ranch, to mention two.
As Kiki Tidwell has stated, this would likely have been resolved through discussions with the Flying Heart HOA. The county prosecutor has elected to spend over $150,000 with the most expensive law firm in the state of Idaho over the outcry of a few fishermen who are unwilling to walk from a parking area at Highway 75. This will surely occupy a place in the court system for several years to come. And likely with a negative outcome for the fishermen.
I believe it is never too late to negotiate, and now would be the time to stop spending $425 an hour with Chris Myers of Givens Pursley in Boise and find common ground with the Flying Heart HOA.
Rich Gouley
Bellevue
