Legal Developments - 2012

Decision 2/3/2012 -- Today Judge Cheri Copsey issued her ruling on our lawsuit to stop the Garden City bike ban.  She ruled in favor of Garden City saying that the Citizens for an Open Greenbelt (COG) does not have standing. In other words she could not rule on the merits of our case because COG, as an organization, did not suffer a particularized harm which would enable it to bring a lawsuit against Garden City. Unfortunately, this ruling leaves citizens with little recourse to challenge the unjust actions of our elected officials. .  

 Specifically the judge wrote: “The issue is narrow. Until the Court rules on whether the Plaintiff, Citizens for an Open Greenbelt, can meet the requirements to establish standing, the Court cannot address the merits (our emphasis) because standing is fundamental to prosecuting any lawsuit.” She also went on to say “…this does not address the issue of whether Garden City should open the greenbelt to bikes”.

 As we have said in many past emails to you, our attorneys argued for COG on highly technical grounds.  It is common sense to us and COG supporters that the Boise River Greenbelt should be a truly open greenbelt and that public entities cannot unfairly restrict its use as we feel Garden City elected officials have chosen to do.  Even the City of Eagle has expressed that view. But sometimes just simple common sense does not allow citizens the right to challenge the actions of their government. 

 A huge turnout at the hearing  in December expressed our support for the incredible service provided by our three Boise attorneys. I hope everyone realizes the huge amount of time they have devoted to representing the interests of the bike riding community in the Treasure Valley.  All at no cost.   Greg Adams (Richardson and O'Leary), Dave Hammerquist (Ringert Law), and Kahle Becker (Attorney at Law) have unselfishly championed this cause.   They deserve recognition and gratitude from all of us.  

This community is deeply indebted to our three attorneys; Greg Adams, Kahle Becker, and David Hammerquist.

COG’s lawsuit against Garden City was dismissed, but we have been evaluating all the options available to us. As we’ve said many times before, COG has been at this since 2007 and we continue to believe that Garden City’s decision to close the bike path in Riverside Village is not reasonable, logical, or in the best interest of the Treasure Valley community. 

We are not giving up on our goal to have a truly open Boise River greenbelt through Riverside Village. This is public trust land that was intended to be a bike path.  The evidence is there for all to see. 

 We do have other options available to stop the Garden City bike ban but it will require your continued support.  Clearly one option is putting this matter to the people for a vote.  So this may simply be a battle lost in the larger campaign.   

Our objective now is to attack this issue by legislative action.  We have assembled a team of very talented people with specialized skills to begin the process of eliminating the Garden City bike ban by an initiative process.  Our goal is to put this to a vote of Garden City residents. We hope this will prohibit the Mayor and Council from banning bike riding on the Boise River Greenbelt in Riverside Village.

We are confident that Garden City voters understand it is in the best interest of the Treasure Valley community that bike riding for recreation and as an alternative form of transportation makes good public policy. To restrict the use of bike riding on any section of the Boise River Greenbelt is nonsense.