This just happened in Eagle. It means tens of thousands in taxes for future homeowners

Rachel Spacek
·2 min read

The new 18,000-acre addition to the city of Eagle, the Avimor planned community, just expanded its taxing district nearly 30-fold.

The move came after Avimor developers petitioned to expand the special taxing district from 654 acres to just over 18,000. It means that all future homeowners in the planned community will have an extra tax on their bills to pay for roads, sewer lines and other improvements.

In March, the Eagle City Council voted to annex Avimor into their growing city. With the move came a change in Avimor’s special taxing district, known as a community infrastructure district. Three council members were appointed to govern the district.

On Tuesday, two of them, Charlie Baun and Melissa Gindlesberger, approved the district’s petition to expand. The third council member Helen Russell, was not at the meeting.

“What’s being proposed would bring all of the land the city recently annexed into the municipal boundaries within the community infrastructure district,” said Jeff Bower, a Givens Pursley attorney who represented Avimor Development, the community’s developer.

Community infrastructure districts, or CIDs, are authorized by Idaho law to allow developers to plan, build and pay for improvements and get their money repaid from taxes paid to the district by future owners of the yet-unbuilt houses.

“Adding this additional area into the district ensures that as growth does take place in the Avimor planned community in the new phases, it will pay for itself through the CID Bower said at the meeting.

The estimated yearly tax on a $400,000 home would be $1,526 without Idaho’s homestead exemption, and $1,151 with the exemption, according to the Avimor CID plan. The tax on a $1.6 million home is estimated to be $5,126 without the homestead exemption and $4,751 with. Only a homeowner’s primary residence is eligible for the exemption.

To expand the district boundary, Avimor developers had to obtain the consent of all of the landowners within it. The land is owned by five companies: Avimor Development, Dual Beneficiary Trust, R Pfannmuler and Son LLC, First American Title Insurance Co. and Spring Valley Livestock Co.

The map shows where Avimor hopes to expand its community infrastructure district. The dark shaded area notes where the expansion is expected to be. The added 17,000 acres would include property in Boise and Gem counties. The small section near the right bottom half of the boundary is where the existing district is located.
The map shows where Avimor hopes to expand its community infrastructure district. The dark shaded area notes where the expansion is expected to be. The added 17,000 acres would include property in Boise and Gem counties. The small section near the right bottom half of the boundary is where the existing district is located.

The update to the district came with additional projects to build. They include adding another access point between Avimor and Idaho 55, widening the highway, and adding a large regional water system and water storage system, Bower said.

No members of the public spoke during a public hearing before Baun and Gindlesberger voted.

New taxes may be coming for 1000’s of unbuilt houses in Eagle’s Foothills. This is why

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