5 minute read
AVIMOR
A Legacy Of Community
Words By Alan Heathcock
In 1916, a Scottish immigrant named Colin McLeod headed west to take advantage of land offered to homesteaders. His 160acre allotment of land sat not far from the burgeoning city of Boise. The land and climate were not suitable for farming, so McLeod became a sheep rancher. Slowly but surely, he took over his neighbors’ parcels until he eventually owned 37,000 acres, a plot he named Spring Valley Ranch. McLeod was a forward-looking man, and he said that one day he hoped his land would become a small American town like those he’d grown to love. The land, and McLeod’s vision, was passed down through the generations. In 2002, Colin McLeod III, known to all as Sandy, sought to develop the ranch and set in motion a plan that has since become the 23,000-acre community known as Avimor.
“We want Avimor to be a place where kids can go out on their bicycles in the morning and feel safe and free,” said Dan Richter, the Managing Partner of Avimor. “I hit it off with the McLeod family because we both had a dream of building a small town.”
Richter grew up in small town Montana. He envisions Avimor as a series of villages and hamlets connected by trails, where community thrives, all while being connected to nature. Avimor isn’t your typical development. With over 100 miles of hiking and biking trails, and twenty-five square miles of open spaces, the land has been developed with consideration of conservation and wildlife.
“Even as ranchers, the McLeods won awards for being environmentally conscious,” Richter said. “We’ve carried on the tradition of being good stewards of the land.”
Richter is proud of the steps they’ve taken. Water, a precious resource in Idaho, is hugely important to Avimor. Initially independent, Avimor now collaborates with the city of Eagle, and their water system taps into a separate aquifer. Fire, a constant danger in warmer months, is also a concern. Avimor is the first “Firewise” community in Idaho, ensuring that all homes are landscaped with fire resistant plantings. They’ve studied the wildlife of the area and try to minimize human interference. They actively cooperate with the Idaho Fish & Game and Ada Soil and Water Conservation District, and they go so far as to close the hiking/biking trails to safeguard the wintering of herds of elk.
Mr. & Mrs. Colin McLeod purchased Spring Valley Ranch, now home to Avimor, and began a rich tradition of land stewardship that carries on today.
The buzz word of just about everything at Avimor is connection. Just as great attention is given to the residents’ connection with nature, it’s equally as important to ensure they’re connected with each other. It’s difficult to build houses, but building a culture of community is an entirely different endeavor.
“I once lived in Phoenix, Arizona,” Richter said. “I bought a house with a six-foot fence around my yard. I never really met my neighbors. Unfortunately, that’s a common way to live. We realize people who move here have likely been desensitized to what it truly means to live in a community. We aim to change that.”
Avimor employs an Art of Living Director, whose job is to create opportunities for engagement. Their community center hosts thirty or so social groups every week. There’s something for everybody, no matter their age or aptitude, with interests ranging from gardening to pets to books to dance. The Avimor events calendar is stocked with community bazaars, food drives, Veterans breakfasts, food truck Mondays, and live music. Avimor goes to great lengths to create a positive environment that’s both social and inclusive. They’ve partnered with the Albertson
Foundation and Southwest Idaho Mountain Biking Association (SWIMBA) to put in adaptive trails, accessible to wheelchairs. For Christmas, they’re hosting a community wide toy drive for Toysfor-Tots.
To date, more than 800 homes have been completed, with 2,000 residents calling Avimor home. The plan going forward is careful but ambitious, and one that would surely please Colin McLeod.
“By the time I’m 100 years old, I want to hand out the last set of keys,” Richter said. “That’s thirty years from now. By that time, we’ll have about 10,000 homes. All on 23,000 acres, which is the same size as Meridian. We can have that many homes and still have open space, connection with nature, and be a haven for community.”
