Head north from Terra View on Highway 16, past Beacon Light Road, and the flat ground gives way to brown, folded hills. Hartley Lane runs toward them and dead-ends at their base. The slope behind that dead end is about 1,918 acres of Bureau of Land Management land, inside Eagle city limits. It reaches east and west across part of North Willow Creek Road and sits right next to Valnova, the 6,000-acre master-planned community going in along Highway 16.
Almost nobody calls that slope protected today. The City of Eagle wants to change that, and the plan drawing the headlines is only one of two that could decide what happens to the land. The other one, a land exchange that runs through Congress, could make the city's application unnecessary. Which one moves first decides whose rules apply to the hills north of Beacon Light.
Two plans on one map
At a July 28 council meeting, city staff showed a map with three colors on it. The blue area was the 1,918 acres the city wants to take over. The green area was about 2,400 acres of BLM land near Valnova. The purple area was about 2,600 acres east of Highway 55, northeast of Avimor. The blue area is one deal. The green and purple areas together are a second one.
| City open-space application | Valnova-area land exchange | |
|---|---|---|
| Land involved | About 1,918 BLM acres north of Beacon Light, east of Highway 16 | About 2,400 BLM acres near Valnova, traded for about 2,600 acres east of Highway 55 |
| Who would end up holding it | City of Eagle, managed as public open space | Clyde Capital Group would get the land near Valnova; the BLM would get the land east of Highway 55 |
| Legal route | Federal Recreation and Public Purposes Act application to the BLM | Pursued separately, including a congressional route |
| City's role | Applicant, paying up to $40,000 toward preparation | Sent letters of support in 2024 and 2025 |
| Status as of late September 2026 | Not yet submitted | No decision or schedule announced |
The first deal uses the Recreation and Public Purposes Act, a federal law that lets the government transfer public land to local governments and qualified nonprofits for public use. The council voted 4-1 to reimburse Clyde Capital, which manages Valnova, up to $40,000 to prepare and submit the application. Clyde Capital pays anything beyond that. According to KTVB's coverage, if the BLM later asks for more surveys or studies, the city will come back to the council before spending more money.
The developer is part of the application because it already holds much of the technical work. City planning and zoning administrator Bill Vaughn told the council that the natural features analysis, biological surveys, cultural surveys and early environmental review were done when earlier developers started planning the land to the north.
In the second deal, Clyde Capital would take ownership of the green acres near Valnova and give the BLM the purple acres east of Highway 55. Vaughn told the council he understood the purple land to be "a much better property for recreation purposes," BoiseDev reported.
Why the exchange could replace the application
According to KTVB, officials said at the meeting that the congressional exchange was moving forward separately, and Vaughn said that if the legislative exchange goes ahead, the open-space application would not be needed.
So the two plans don't simply run side by side. Depending on how the exchange is written and how fast it moves, it could settle the land question before the city's application ever reaches a BLM desk.
That overlap is what drew public attention this fall. Eagle resident Christopher Hadden told KTVB he supports public access to federal land but wants the two proposals kept clearly apart. He said BLM staff told him they are separate and would be reviewed independently. "I'm looking to preserve all this open space in the Eagle Foothills, and for future generations to come, not to have it be exploited by developers and more homes be put in," he said.
The council heard both sides. Council member Robert Gillis, the lone no vote, questioned how it looks to have the same developers and consultants involved in Valnova, the sports park and the open-space effort. Council member Nancy Merrill, a former mayor, told KTVB that public-private partnerships are "how we, as a small city, have survived." Merrill also pointed to the city's North Ada Foothills plan. As she described it to BoiseDev, if development happens between Highway 16 and Highway 55, the front of the foothills stays undeveloped and can't be bought by private owners for development.
KTVB summed up where things stand: "Neither process is close to a final decision."
Why the city wants control now
The land is in use today. The Idaho Statesman describes the hilly area north of Hartley Road as a popular place for target shooting and off-roading, the closest outdoor shooting option for people who would otherwise drive more than an hour to the public range in Nampa. On July 22, the council turned down Ordinance 942, which would have limited firearm discharge to city-designated areas, BoiseDev reported. According to that coverage, existing city code allows it on BLM land and on parcels larger than 20 acres, subject to safety conditions.
City officials say heavy, mixed use is damaging the trails. According to the Idaho Statesman, federal law requires the BLM to close lands it has set aside for the public if it finds they are being harmed by recreational use. City leaders see a successful application as a way to keep the land open. Vaughn told the council that if the land stays with the BLM, the agency could keep the current recreational use or sell the land to developers. If the application goes through, he said, the city gets "the say in how it's used, and it will be open space."
A long timeline
None of this is new to City Hall. Eagle's approach to the land has moved slowly:
- 2007: The city starts working with the BLM to bring roughly 2,000 acres of foothills land under city control.
- 2009: Eagle annexes that land along with the area now called Valnova.
- Great Recession years: Talks stall amid the downturn and BLM staff turnover.
- 2021: The council forms a BLM lands working group to recommend how to manage the 2,200 BLM acres inside city limits.
- July 28, 2026: The council approves the reimbursement agreement with Clyde Capital, 4-1.
- Late September 2026: City spokesperson Laura Williams tells BoiseDev that one preliminary meeting has been held and the application has not been submitted.
From there, Williams estimated about eight months to prepare and submit the application, then one to two years of BLM review. Counting forward from late September 2026, those estimates would put submission around mid-2027 and a BLM decision no earlier than 2028.
Residents get their say during those eight months of preparation. Williams listed public surveys, open houses, work sessions with user groups and several council presentations, and told BoiseDev:
"The RPP Application process will provide multiple opportunities for public input in the coming months, so we encourage people to keep an eye out for upcoming surveys and open houses."
As of the latest coverage, no dates had been announced. The city has a dedicated RPP Application page under its master plans section, the most direct place to watch for surveys and open houses once they're scheduled. Questions about timing on the exchange go to Clyde Capital Group. The city referred BoiseDev there, and the company hadn't responded by publication.
Foothill trails you can use now
While the paperwork moves, the closest established foothills trails open to the public are at the Ada/Eagle Bike Park. It's free, covers more than 200 acres, and is managed jointly by Ada County and Eagle. It has beginner-to-expert bike features, downhill-only bike trails and more than 10 miles of multi-use trails, and e-bikes are allowed on the trails Ada County manages. Free parking is in the lot off Old Horseshoe Bend Road. The county calls summer and fall the best seasons to ride because the trails are less wet and muddy, so the next few weeks are a good window.
Avimor's trails are a different case. Named routes like Willow Creek Trail at 3.1 miles and Spring Valley Creek Trail at 3.5 miles are posted as open to Avimor residents. Avimor also lists a seasonal closure from December 1 through March 31.
Closer to Terra View, the city's long-term plan ties back to the same hills. When Eagle broke ground on its regional sports park at the east end of Equest Lane off Highway 16 in 2023, the final buildout called for a trailhead for hiking, biking and horseback riding with access into BLM land. That trailhead is a later phase. In his September 2026 State of the City address, as reported by KIVI, Mayor Brad Pike said phase one of what is now called the Eagle Regional Athletic Park covers a driveway, parking lot and four baseball fields, at an estimated $4 million. In the same address, he said the city is working to preserve more than 1,900 acres of BLM land near Beacon Light North as open space for public recreation.
We live in the Treasure Valley too, and we're watching the city's RPP page for those survey and open-house dates. If you'd like a heads-up when they're posted, or want to talk through what the foothills plans could mean for your corner of Terra View, reach out to The Shackelford Group. We're happy to help, and curious what you think should happen up there.
