New homes in the Boise Foothills are cracking, falling apart. How’d we get here, again?

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New homes in the Boise Foothills are cracking, falling apart. How’d we get here, again?

Building in the Boise Foothills has always been a grueling task, and deeply unpopular with those who want to preserve the rolling golden hills. Water issues, erosion, steep slopes and fire risk are a few of the issues developers face when trying to build in one of the region’s most prized icons.

But that doesn’t stop developers from trying, such as with Boise’s upscale

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just north of the Old Penitentiary. It seemed like a successful neighborhood until 2016, when residents watched as their homes slowly crumbled and cracked apart in landslides.

Now, a growing neighborhood in the Boise Foothills, Eyrie Canyon, is facing a torrent of complaints from homeowners as its developer continues to build east of Quail Hollow Golf Course and north of Hill Road.

Jerry and Judy Myers bought a newly constructed home and moved to the neighborhood in 2016 to be closer to their daughter and better take care of Judy’s aging mother.

Prices were steep — between $600,000 and $675,000 when they bought their home — and have only gone up since. Homes in the neighborhood are now selling for over

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The Myerses happened to live less than 1½ miles from the collapsing homes in the East End in 2016, before they moved to the Eyrie Canyon halfway across the city. But the ghosts of Terra Nativa seem to have followed them. When they were moving into their new house, their home inspector noticed cracks on the outside of the home, which is common as new homes settle into the soil below. But the cracks grew, and the ceiling started to sink.

“Each year it got worse,” Judy Myers told the Idaho Statesman in an interview.

Judy Myers talks about structural damage to her home and others in her neighborhood in the Boise Foothills.

They hired crews to fix the home. Workers found sections under the entry and fireplace with no supports, Judy Myers said. They put in giant screws called helical piers to secure the home, but the living room began sinking into the ground, creating a bowl-like depression.

Judy Myers said they spent about $800,000 — well over what they paid for the home, and most of their life savings — to keep the house from coming apart, including about 70 steel helical piers. The couple paid for the repairs out of pocket since insurance doesn’t cover “dirt movement,” she said.

A former schoolteacher and real estate agent, Judy Myers came out of retirement to sell more homes to pay off the costs of their home repairs. It wouldn’t be right, she said, to sell their home until she could prove that it had no problems.

At this point, “It’s a house of steel,” she said.

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Judy Myers had several helical piers, shown here, installed under her home in the Boise Foothills to repair problems with the foundation.

But it’s not just the Myerses. The Ada County Highway District has responded to several problems with the roads in Eyrie Canyon, while city of Boise records show several other homeowners in the neighborhood have also applied for permits to put in helical piers.

In September, neighbors in three other homes in Eyrie Canyon filed tort claims against the city of Boise and ACHD, alleging they knew the soil in the area was unstable and failed to ensure that the developer, Boise’s Connell Development Co., addressed hazards.

In mid-January, the same neighbors sued Eagle-based Core Building Co. in civil court, which built several homes in Eyrie Canyon. None of them sued Connell.

A tort claim against a government entity is often a precursor to a lawsuit, unless the parties reach a settlement out of court. As of mid-February, none of the neighbors had sued the city.

Maria Weeg, a spokesperson for the city of Boise, declined to comment on the claims’ allegations, citing ongoing litigation.

Rachel Bjornestad, spokesperson for ACHD, told the Statesman by email, “We are aware of the issues in the subdivision and have received a tort claim. While we do not believe any of our facilities or actions are causing the issues, the claim is currently being processed and investigated.”

Colin Connell, the founder of his namesake company, told the Statesman in an interview that all problems were homeowner-caused. Core Building Co. did not return a request for comment.

What are the allegations in the Boise Foothills?

The neighbors’ tort claims sought $4.5 million in damages, alleging the city and ACHD were “negligent, grossly negligent, reckless and/or acted willfully and wantonly in the planning, evaluation, inspection and approval of the development of North Eyrie Way and/or the subdivision.”

“As a direct and proximate result of the conduct of the city and ACHD, ground movement has occurred and is expected to occur in the future, subjecting (the owners) and their home to serious, irreparable and permanent damage, loss in market value, economic loss and emotional suffering,” according to the three claims.

According to the claims, the homes are continuing to move and to sustain additional damage.

“In the event this movement continues unchecked, the home will likely become unsuitable for occupation,” each of the claims says.

Before any homes had been approved for the homeowners’ phase of Eyrie Canyon, the city had already received a higher-than-normal number of permit requests for other, earlier homes, according to the claims.

“Despite having such knowledge, the city failed to require (Connell Development Co.) to demonstrate that site limitations could be overcome in a manner that would minimize hazards to life and property,” according to the claims.

The lawsuit the neighbors filed against Core said the homeowners had a 10-year warranty on any required repairs to the foundation of the homes.

According to the lawsuit, the homeowners notified Core in October that there were building defects in their homes, including cracking and/or separation in several parts of the homes, including walls and ceilings, woodwork and cabinets, foundation walls and concrete slabs.

The lawsuit said Core inspected the houses and denied any fault. Core has not yet filed a response to the lawsuit, which was filed Jan. 17.

According to Chad Nicholson, a Boise lawyer representing the homeowners, preliminary estimates for repairs are high.

“Each home is looking in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs,” Nicholson said by phone. “The homes are still settling and they’re expected to continue settling.”

The Myerses are not part of the lawsuit. Jerry Myers, who is retired, is in his early 80s, while Judy Myers is in her 70s. She said going to court would take too long.

“We’re just too old,” she said.

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Judy Myers points to a large crack on her kitchen wall.

What happened in the Foothills homes?

Judy Myers said the damage to the couple’s house came from a combination of moving soil and underground streams of water. She said the city, ACHD and Connell knew about them before construction started in Eyrie Canyon, but nobody disclosed the risks when they bought the home.

“They still went ahead and started developing this area anyway,” she said.

Colin Connell told the Statesman that there was no moisture in the soil. It is so dense, he said, that the only way homeowners could have a problem is if they caused it themselves.

“If this moisture shows up under the foundation … it’s always irrigation, because there’s no way there’s enough rain to saturate it down like that,” Connell said. “It’s either irrigation or storm water.”

Connell said the Myers’ lot and home were built to comply with all guidelines, and the problems in the subdivision were caused by homeowners putting grass too close to their homes and watering too much. Connell said he couldn’t believe the Myerses had put almost a million dollars into securing their home and questioned how that could have happened.

“Maybe (Judy Myers) figured if she put the piers in, she could still water all she wanted,” Connell said. “But she doesn’t have a story that’ll hold water other than (being) ticked off, because she caused her own problems.”

Judy Myers denied that sprinklers were the cause. She said the soil was wet even after turning the sprinklers off for extended periods. Any kind of water stays on top, she said, because the clay soil doesn’t allow it to sink.

Asked if there were any disclosures or rules explaining that residents should keep grass away from their homes and to watch their use of sprinklers, Connell said no.

“You can’t put that kind of rule in writing,” he said. “You just can’t enforce it. I mean, how can you enforce it if someone goes out there and is dumb enough to put a hose next to your foundation to make your little grass grow?”

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Some homes in the Boise Foothills have had significant structural damage.

What do experts say about the Foothills?

There have been concerns about the area’s soil and geologic makeup since at least 2008, when a geotechnical report from Boise’s Strata firm outlined hazards in the area for Connell Development. Some of these hazards included earthquakes, subsurface storm water disposal, potential landslides and slope instability.

Strata recorded several types of zones for the development, ranging from floodplains to moderate or steeply sloping areas. The Myers home sits in the middle of Strata’s range with soils made up of mostly clay, silt, silty sand and clayey sand.

“General constraints include potentially active clay soils, low strength settlement potential, potentially localized wetness and erosion,” according to the report. “The near-surface soils may exhibit relatively low density and may be susceptible to settlement when loaded, such as from residential foundations or structural fill.”

Strata reported that the Myers’ home was in a zone that was suitable for roadway, infrastructure and residential development, but construction would likely need to account for dense soil that doesn’t allow water to sink.

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Judy Myers points out an area of her garage floor that needed repair.

Based on previous experience, Strata reported that the soil could swell or shrink between 4% and 10% depending on changes in moisture content. Though there are mitigation measures builders could take, this swelling or shrinking could lead to movement and distress of pavement, foundations, slabs and other structures, according to the report.

“The purpose of our study was to identify any ‘fatal flaws’ which may have a significant adverse impact on the proposed development concept,” according to the report. “No such flaws were identified during our research and reconnaissance. However, we have identified specific geotechnical and geologic issues.”

Some of these problems include seasonal water problems in three of the four zones after heavy rain, during spring runoff and from sprinklers, according to the report.

“Standing water below crawlspaces, or water intrusion into basement living areas, can lead to numerous structural and health problems, and could ultimately lead to litigation between homeowners and general contractors or the development team,” according to the report.

Poor design, or too many sprinklers?

Meridian’s Allwest Testing and Engineering conducted a study for Connell Development in 2019 after the company noted drainage problems and ACHD expressed concerns over problems with roads along Arrow Villa Way and Goshawk Way — where the Myers home sits.

In a July 2019 visit, Allwest noted that the road was cracking and parts of the sidewalks had cracked and separated.

“It is our opinion that surface waters (precipitation, snow melt, storage, irrigation, etc.) … led to asphalt pavement, concrete structures and gravel subsection shifting down-slope toward the southwest,” according to the report.

The company recommended rebuilding the road and sidewalk and adding better preventative measures, such as drainage trenches or pipes, to make sure surface water didn’t create more problems in the future.

After the Myerses started noticing issues, they hired Meridian-based Innovate Geotechnical to study their property. The company found a layer of wet soil about two feet deep and standing water at the surface along the north side of the home.

Several factors like heavy rain or irrigation practices could have led to the standing water, according to the report, but the cause was not within the scope of the study.

The Myerses commissioned another study in 2021 from Boise’s Focus Engineering that recommended they re-evaluate their water usage and avoid aiming sprinklers toward the house foundation. But it also noted that the lot adjacent to their home didn’t appear to have adequate site drainage, stubs for future pipe connections or roof downspouts to the drainage system.

“Some type of site drainage system connected to the ACHD storm drain pipe system should be required and installed for any proposed new home construction on the adjacent building lot to help prevent soil saturation and possible groundwater movement to other surrounding sites,” according to the study.

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Construction crews are continuing to build new homes in Eyrie Canyon, as shown here on Accipiter Way.

More houses on the way despite the problems

So who’s at fault for these home issues?

“There’s no real clear answer,” said Seth Olsen, the founder of Innovate Geotechnical who studied the Myers home. “It’s really a combination of everyone.”

Meanwhile, Connell is moving ahead. There are still about 16 houses to go in the latest round of the Eyrie Canyon development, and he has plans to develop 74 more acres he owns in the Foothills, he said.

That may be a long shot. In 2019, the Boise City Council denied a plan Connell presented to develop 21 acres of the Foothills between the Myers home and Quail Hollow Golf Course.

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Since being sworn in, Mayor Lauren McLean has made a concerted effort to preserve the Boise Foothills.

In the years since, the city has become even more focused on preserving land in the Foothills, buying 325 acres in 2020 from Gov. Brad Little’s sons and 80 acres in 2024, according to prior

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The mayor and the City Council’s recent attempts to preserve the Foothills, Connell said, don’t make sense with the thousands of open acres that could be used.

“It’s ridiculous that they won’t allow it to be developed,” Connell said, “because the soil is not an issue at all.”

Statesman reporter Sarah Cutler contributed to this story.

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