Competition Brews As Cities Seek To Claim Unused BLM Land

The Boise suburb of "Kuna filed a plan with the Bureau of Land Management to spend $78.5 million to build everything from picnic areas and playgrounds to an industrial site and a golf course on 1,760 acres."

"It's a bold proposal by the fast-growing city of 14,000, which has a total annual budget of about $13.3 million (not including a $30 million Local Improvement District). The city's application to BLM says the sites would be developed through public-private partnerships."

Several municipalities have been interested in the two parcels, prompting one open-space advocate to call for a regional approach to planning recreational and other public uses there.

This public land rush is enabled by the Recreation and Public Purposes Act, which was enacted by Congress in 1954 and is administered by the Bureau of Land Management.

The law authorizes the sale or lease of public lands for recreational or public purposes to state and local governments and qualified nonprofits.