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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-01-29 Joint Meeting with ACHD Meridian City Council -ACHD Joint January 29, 2024. A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:01 p.m. Monday, January 29, 2024, by Mayor Robert Simison. Members Present: Robert Simison, Joe Borton, Luke Cavener, Liz Strader, John Overton, Anne Little Roberts and Doug Taylor. ROLL-CALL ATTENDANCE X Liz Strader X Joe Borton Anne Little Roberts X John Overton _X_ Doug Taylor _X—Luke Cavener X Mayor Robert E. Simison ROLL CALL ATTENDANCE - ACHD COMMISSION X Jim Hansen X Alexis Pickering X Miranda Gold X Kent Goldthorpe X Dave McKinney Simison: Council, we will call the meeting to order. For the record it is January 29th, 2024, at 6:01 p.m. We will begin this joint meeting with roll call attendance. Mr. Clerk. And for ACHD. Pickering: We are all present. Simison: Okay. Excellent. Thank you, everyone, for joining us this evening and it is a fair amount of presentations this evening, so, hopefully, this format works for what we hope to accomplish is get an update and get an opportunity to engage with one another and what we will do is we will just go ahead and -- I will go ahead and just recognize people throughout. We won't -- don't need to take turns, just raise hand whether you are online or in person and we will go ahead and operate that way for our time. So, Commission President, do you have any comments you would like to say before we get going? Pickering: Just thank you for the opportunity to be here with all of you today and looking forward to not only the presentations, but hopefully answering questions and any other insights or conversation that follows. Simison: All right. Thank you. So, first up is adoption of the agenda. Borton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Borton. Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 2 of 26 Borton: Move we adopt the agenda as published. Simison: Councilman Borton has moved to adopt the agenda as published. Do we have a second? Overton: Second. Strader: Second the motion. Simison: I have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay. The ayes have it and the agenda is adopted. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. DISCUSSION TOPICS [Action Item] 1. Linder Road Idaho Transportation Department Grant Simison: The first item up is the Linder Road Idaho Transportation Department grant. We will be hearing from Mr. Hood and Mr. McCarthy is my understanding. Mr. Hood. Hood: Good evening, Mr. Mayor, President Pickering, Council Members, Commissioners, my name is Caleb Hood, I am the deputy director of Community Development Department here in the -- in the city and I have been working with Brian McCarthy over the last couple of months on this project that we are going to give you an update on this evening, the Linder Road, Overland to Franklin project. It does include an overpass of Interstate 84, which we are pretty excited about. We are also here to celebrate -- as the agenda states we did receive -- as a city we received 4.3 million dollars through ITD for their strategic initiatives grant. So, we are pretty excited about that and, again, we will get into a little of those details, but maybe just to orient you all and some of the reason why this is an important project for the city, we have been advocating for this project for several years now with COMPASS, with ACHD and other transportation partners in the region. Once the overpass is constructed Linder Road. will be about 33 miles long connecting the -- the Snake River to the foothills just north of Eagle. So, really a regionally significant project and I know that means something different depending on what -- what room you are in and what agency you are working with, but, really, this is going to be the longest arterial in the county once -- once it's constructed. So, again, pretty excited about it. We have been trying to identify funding sources for several years, working, again, on getting this project in the TIP, the STIF and the Integrated Five Year Work Plan. In 2020 the Mayor did set up a task force that's been meeting about every other month over the last few months -- a few years, excuse me. It includes members from the business community, the school district, our emergency service providers, because there is a whole bunch of benefit with schools and fire stations and just neighborhood connectivity in the -- in the general vicinity of this project. Here is the limits of the project. So, again, between Overland and Franklin Road, with some intersection improvements. I will let Brian get into some of those Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 3 of 26 details on where design is at these days and -- and some of the nitty gritty there. But in 2021 the City Council budgeted 2.5 million dollars to kick start the project and move it into design. That investment really helped us win the grant with ITD. We applied for ten million, but we will take 4.3 and put that to good use. Really, again, want to thank ACHD for allowing Mr. McCarthy and -- and others at the highway district to project manage the design. It's -- it's been a really good experience for me and I think the city to have your involvement in coordination with ITD and knowing how they operate. So, that's been very valuable from the city's perspective. But to have that shelf ready -- heard that from ITD staff, to have that shelf ready and the design almost done really helped us get that -- get those monies to move towards construction and right of way. We do have an interagency agreement that allowed, again, ACHD sources to work with Keller and Associates and, again, Brian will provide some more information on where they are at in design. But we will likely look at modifying that -- the interagency agreement we currently have that takes the -- up to 2.5 million dollars and maybe modify that, really looking at the city contributing our portion, again, to make this project move to construction. So, I think with that Brian has some updates on actual design of the project. As he is coming up I will just kind of leave this -- that task force I was mentioning, really, our role through some of that task force was to not only advocate for the project, but maybe look at some thematic examples with it being sandwiched between Meridian and Ten Mile, kind of thinking of maybe what some of the form liners could look like, some of the concrete, some of the landscaping and some of the other elements that maybe have aesthetic and -- and traffic value, including those in the project. So, with that I will turn it over to Brian. McCarthy: Thank you, Caleb. As Caleb mentioned, I am Brian McCarthy as project management and supervisor at ACHD and I am managing the Linder Road overpass project. As he mentioned it's a partnership project between the City of Meridian, ACHD and ITD, with the Idaho Transportation Department -- a team member is overseeing the -- the overpass as it's crossing 84 and -- and ultimately responsible for the ownership of the Overpass. A little background on where we have come so far on design. We have completed the concept design in the fall of last year. We have completed the 75 percent design review and at that point was when we had the first public involvement effort with the concept design. The second large public involvement effort was just this past October with the 75 percent design review and currently right now the team is reviewing the 95 percent design submittal. We expect to have final design complete in April, at which time we will proceed into the right-of-way phase. Some details on -- on what we have so far. And all these displays that I'm sharing were available to the public during the online open house and all the public outreach that we did. These are all on our website if you would like to see some more information on there, it's all on the website. This rendering is looking at the overpass, looking to the south, so standing on the north side of 84 and looking towards the south. A couple things I want to point out was -- if you notice between the travel way and the multi-use pathway we have a -- a pedestrian wall separating the -- the vehicles from the -- the multi-use pathway, which would be used for the pedestrians and the cyclists. You may notice on one side we have a retaining wall on the north side, while on the south side we have a fill slope and the reason for that was to try and preserve as much space of available property on the Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 4 of 26 north side based on all the -- the subdivisions that are built out on the north side and potential future development there as well. While the south side -- there was quite a bit of right-of-way preservation where we had the space for that large fill slope. Again, you can see the -- the wall in this rendering a little bit better. That -- that pedestrian wall is continuing all the way down. It's -- it's on the overpass, but it's also continuing all the way down for the -- the approaches until you touch ground -- touchdown on the regular ground. The overview here -- I chose this location specifically to see just kind of a typical section of the -- the five lanes. So, two lanes in each direction with a center turn lane. However, in that center turn lane where it's not required for left turn movements, we are utilizing a median island that the city is interested in landscaping. So, we will be having the median islands with landscaping and also landscaping in the buffered area between the curb and the multi-use pathway. There is a five foot buffer in that strip, so the blue -- the blue area there on the aerial that the city is also looking to -- to landscape that buffered area. I also want to point out Verbena Drive, so we are realigning Verbena Drive based on the grade change. Currently where Verbena Drive enters in at Linder Road, it will be about a seven foot grade differential. So, we were realigning for being a drive to line up with the east side of Verbena as well. I also want to point out some -- you can see here on the -- the top of the screen a couple of these houses that are -- are pretty close to the roadway there. There are some -- a few properties that are pretty heavily impacted with this project that we are -- we are working with directly on those property owners currently and we actually, as of last week, the Commission approved the purchase of one of the full acquisition properties impacted by the -- the new overpass. Extending down through Overland Road the project -- it's not stopping at Overland, it's actually continuing all the way through to the south side of the intersection. The reason for that is to allow for the continuous multi-use pathway. Rather than terminating it at Overland Road it will continue all the way through Overland down Linder and connect into some existing and future proposed multi-use pathways on Linder Road. At Waltman Street we are installing a pedestrian hybrid beacon and this is one of two pedestrian hybrid beacons that will be within the project location. The other one is at Greenhead and as mentioned we -- we did two major rounds of public involvement and these are the results from the -- the most recent one, which was in October of 2023, which was the 75 percent design. Many of the displays that I showed here were available for the viewing and comment. 73.1 percent of the 208 responses were in favor of the project. That was comparatively to the concept public involvement that we had, it was at 69 percent were in favor. So, it actually went up with this additional round of public involvement and we -- we feel like some of that has to do with the enhancements that we did to the pedestrian and multi-use pathway, such as the -- the pedestrian wall and also carrying it all the way through to Overland intersection. Next steps for design we are currently reviewing the 95 percent design submittal and, then, we expect the final submittal in April will be starting the right of way phase. Shortly after that we actually already began the right of way phase on some of these parcels that are -- are full buyouts. Money for that is programmed at '24 and '25 and, then, we are looking to construct in 2026 and 2027. As mentioned before Idaho Transportation Department will be responsible for the overpass and responsible for the cost tied to the overpass and to that point, again, we are working with ITD to find roughly four or five million dollars to match the four million dollar grant, so they can pony up the rest of the Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 5 of 26 bridge cost to make the overpass actually happen. So, again, I'm encouraged they are having those conversations in that division again working on how, then, our three agencies can work together to make this project move forward. We had just our first conversation last week as the City of Meridian was just -- just received our letter and draft MOU from ITD to review and sign. So, there are some terms of that that we are still talking about, but fully intend to execute that MOU with ITD and continue the conversations between our -- our three agencies to figure out what the next steps are to keep this project moving forward. So, I don't believe we really have any questions for you this evening, but more a -- a project status update and kind of next steps and some good news. So, with that, Mr. Mayor. Simison: Thank you. Council, Commission, questions? Pickering: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Commission President Pickering. Pickering: I just want to commend staff and the leadership on the Council, but more importantly for getting this far, first of all. But the second piece is how important your guys' partnership on the landscape element of those medians and those buffers, because that's going to -- by widening this roadway and developing that overpass folks are going to be coming down really fast; right? So, to make sure folks are going the speed limit, that type of landscape median is going to help a lot and provide some safety factors. So, I just want to say thank you for putting -- for putting that forward and working with us on that. That's a key piece of this. Simison: Thank you. McKinney: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Commissioner McKinney. McKinney: Quick question. Regarding the public feedback and the -- the information that you showed there among those who didn't like the concept design is there kind of a common thread for why they didn't like it? I'm just curious to know about that. McCarthy: Commissioner, it was pretty clear when you read through all the comments that people that live directly in the neighborhood north of 84 or, you know, along Linder Road tended to have the more negative feedback that we received for both rounds of public involvement. You know, currently it's a dead end on Linder Road, so the additional traffic that would come through the roadway, road noise impacts the properties, that those were more of the negative feedback that we received. Hansen: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Mr. Hansen: Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 6 of 26 Hansen: Yeah. So, I have a question that would be for the whole Council and the Mayor and staff and that's because this, obviously, has an impact on the -- on another Linder project, which is north of Franklin, which goes -- which we are currently spending resources to decide, you know, what the best options are. But I think there is a larger question. The corridor itself, which you have described, Caleb, as, you know, being the longest arterial will be the longest arterial because there is a future investment to widening of the Linder Bridge over the river to really see this as a mobility corridor for motor vehicles. That sort of decides -- largely decides how it's going to -- what the view of the city is of what Linder will be, both with the design of this bridge and the design of the river bridge, rather than thinking of Linder as being more of what it -- portions of it is -- are right now, which is a residential arterial. So, I guess that's my question. Have we already pre-decided or is there a preference for making sure that that does function as one of the longest arterials, a mobility corridor arterial, and that will save us a lot of heartache as we look at different options -- as we are looking at different options on Linder if clearly Meridian City wants this to be a mobility corridor that goes all the way from the river to well south of the freeway. Hood: So, Mr. Mayor, maybe I will give that a first go. Use this one. And, then, obviously, I don't speak for all of Council. I will, Commissioner Hansen, just to let you know, though, the Council did receive an update from Brook Green just within about a month ago I guess now at this point. So, there was no discussions of Council on if their city has a preferred three or five or five with shared roads. We -- some of Council, I would assume, took the survey, as the rest of the public did if you are referring to that -- the segment I imagine north of Pine, between Pine and -- and Ustick. From our standpoint, though, again, broadly, the city's looked at that corridor as being, yes, a mobility corridor for multiple modes. You have Eagle. You know, there is -- there is recreating in the foothills. There is Eagle Island State Park. There is several places to shop along the corridor. So, I think it is a corridor we look at that can function, again, for multiple modes, bikes, pedestrians and cars and if the question is -- you know, I think there is some question and concern, as I'm sure you have on three versus five in that segment, because it's pretty constrained, but it is, again, a regional corridor. So, I think that's something that we are -- we definitely want the connection at -- at the interstate, first and foremost, and, then, maybe looking at the actual cross-section with community feedback from -- from some of those surveys, too. Hansen: Mayor. And I would just encourage the Council to look at it and give us some much deeper feedback. Also take a look at the history, the attempt was made on Curtis for a segment that had housing a number of years ago, but because it's such a narrow -- a short segment, inviting people to function -- have Curtis function as a mobility corridor and, then, constrain it down and attempt to try and do a lot of things in one space and, then, widen it back out again at Chinden, it didn't work and so I think the reality is we have to -- we have to get a stronger sense of where Meridian is before we go too much further in -- in the development of that segment, simply because of the way in which we are designing this -- this project that we are looking at today. Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 7 of 26 Simison: I will take a shot at it and I think some of this maybe comes wrapped up into the next dialogue, the next item on the agenda. You know, at least from my personal perspective. I don't know -- I -- I -- I have a viewpoint on what are -- what all arterial should be preserved for moving forward. I understand when you have something already developed it creates a unique challenge through that, but I don't think it changes the intent. So, how do you -- at least from my perspective get to the intent of the arterial network, despite the challenges that currently exist with the built homes in that area. It's my short way of saying we will wait until the next one and give you my full feedback, but that's just my feedback on -- personal feedback on the concept. The Council, obviously, hasn't weighed in fully from their viewpoints since we had that initial conversation. Council, anyone else like to provide direct feedback to that question? Okay. All right. Any other questions or comments on this topic? 2. McMillan Road - Three Lane to Five Lane Preservation Simison: All right. Thank you very much. And, Mr. Hood, we will let you stay there to bring up the next item, which is McMillan Road Three Lane to Five Lane Preservation. Hood: Thank you again, Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council and ACHD Commission. Maybe just to put a bow on that last topic a little bit as we transition to this. As you alluded to, Mr. Mayor, there is some relational issues with this -- this topic and even the Linder Road corridor. Prior to Ms. Green taking her leave we did coordinate and when she gets back here in the spring she will come back to Council and I fully anticipate that's where some more direct feedback will occur again after we have seen the summary from the public, have more data and more information, I do anticipate a -- you know, I don't know if it's going to be an action item necessarily, but there will be a more robust discussion I'm sure of the Council when Ms. Green is able to come back and -- and do a follow up on the Linder Road concept study. So, transitioning, then, to McMillan Road and some other corridors, again, I'm still Caleb Hood here with the -- with the city. I coordinated with Mr. Justin Lucas, there in the way back -- didn't want to be associated with me, but I did talk to him. He's here to answer any technical questions on some of the things that I may say regarding to like master street map or CIP or Integrated Five Year Work Plan, those types of things, so -- so, he is here. I don't have too many slides on this one. This one really is more of a dialogue I think than slides. But I will just put up something to look at, so you don't have to stare at me the whole time. So, McMillan is -- is generally in the middle of their screens. Just to orient you to the McMillan corridor. Last summer the city did send a letter to ACHD with some concerns about McMillan at -- near the State Highway 16 project. Originally, McMillan was -- was planned to go over State Highway 16 and, then, ITD flipped that and now McMillan is going under and there will be an overpass -- State Highway 16 will be an overpass and the plans only had an 80 foot span and still do have an 80 foot span -- I know it's hard to see in a PowerPoint. On the bottom you can kind of see the dimension there. There is 80 foot clear between the MSC walls there and that caused us concern when we saw the revised plans that showed that. So, we sent a letter to you and talked to ITD both and said, hey, you know, someday we would like to preserve maybe five lanes going -- in this case under State Highway 16. So, for years Meridian Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 8 of 26 has advocated for the preservation of McMillan Road for more than the two lanes that it generally is in Meridian -- for much of Meridian today. While the city understands the constraints of widening McMillan, I don't know, again, how familiar you all are with McMillan, but there is a canal that runs along a good portion of this, as well as the large Idaho Power power poles and they even cross at some of the intersections. So, some portions of them both on the same side, but most of the corridor you have one on one side and so a canal on one side and the -- and large power poles on the other. So, very constrained corridor. But it is a detour route as you can see. Chinden and the old state highway at Ustick, so it does get used and there is more and more traffic and our city limits are growing along McMillan and we don't see that changing. So, preserving for its long-term functionality is really the -- the concern there. Some -- some opportunities have been lost for some right of way preservation along McMillan. However, the opportunity still exists adjacent to underdeveloped properties and towards the county line. So, as you can see the -- if it's not in color here, those -- those properties are still unannexed in unincorporated Ada county today, but within Meridian's area of city impact. We have done a pretty good job of preserving access along this corridor, mostly subdivision entrances, public roads coming into -- to subdivisions that align. So, done a pretty good job, unlike Fairview that has 99 access points in a mile in some segments, there really are some of these segments that only have three or four driveways or roadway intersections. So, that comes into play where you may not even need to do five lanes in some of the corridors. Maybe you can even get away with four, because you don't have the turning movements left ins and whatnot on a lot of the corridor. I'm not trying to design it here from the podium, but just saying right of way preservation and maybe you don't have to do five lanes and -- and blow everything out, because you really don't need to have, again, a center turn lane or even the median and landscape medians in the middle of it. McMillan isn't the only section line arterial we would like to see preserved for future widening. In fact, Meridian's request this evening is that all section line arterials in our planning area be preserved for a hundred feet of total right of way, unless we both agree -- unless both of our agencies agree that something more or less is appropriate. So, what you see here is the planned lanes on the master street map -- ACHD's master street map. There are some threes and some sevens, but majority are five and -- and that's what, again, we would like the starting point to be five, unless we coordinate something differently. So, there -- there are some additional coordinations that I kind of mentioned in my -- my opening remarks. Certainly there is some impacts, right, to plans and programs. So, we would like to just have that conversation with staff. I would -- I would be more than happy to work through some of the logistics of what that means to, again, CIPs and whatnot, but at a very high level that -- that is Meridian's request is that we preserve a hundred feet and figure out design later for the section line arterial roads in Meridian. So, with that, Mr. Mayor, I will stand for any questions, comments, feedback. Simison: Thank you. Council, Commission, questions, comments? Borton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Borton. Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 9 of 26 Borton: Lots of good comments working on it, but you in particular the name has come up many many times working on that design. Strader: Mr. Mayor, we can't hear him online. Borton: Sorry. How is that? Okay. To -- to comment to Caleb's point, I -- I think we have been pretty consistent for some time as to this when in doubt for the arterials trying to preserve a hundred feet of right of way. The times -- we all have stories where there is missed opportunity and it certainly is a sacrifice and a big stretch at times to be able to do that, but anytime there is an opportunity to get that right of way preservation, even if the ultimate construction is something less than you can go that direction, but you can't go back and we have -- we all have examples where that hasn't worked. So, appreciate you bringing it up again and I think we have all been consistent from the city that that's our intent and our baseline ask is the hundred feet of right of way. It's just better long-term planning. Gives us more options. So, I appreciate you bringing that up, Mayor. McKinney: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Commissioner McKinney. McKinney: Let me just chime in for a moment. I'm -- I'm inclined to agree that McMillan is a good example of a place where opportunities were missed and now, you know, going back and -- and fixing a difficult situation becomes, you know, far more costly and in some cases really not practically possible. McMillan is a good example. The -- it has a five lane section from Eagle Road to Locust Grove and, then, it narrows down to back to a two or three lane section for the next, you know, so many miles and yet those areas are fairly built up and the majority of the traffic on McMillan I think is primarily local traffic. That is to say it's being generated by the adjacent neighborhoods for the most part and back in 2018 when I began working on the Meridian Transportation Commission we were discussing this very subject of, you know, I brought up a concern about why are we -- - why are we only looking at three lanes on McMillan and not five. The statement was made that, well, we have got -- Ustick is being expanded and Chinden is being expanded and once those two things are done you will see that the traffic will be drawn away from McMillan and the truth is it really hasn't been. Both of those are done and in the a.m. and p.m. peaks McMillan -- you know, several miles of it through there -- is -- is a parking lot during both that morning and -- and -- and evening peaks. And so I'm in agreement. You know, it's all about money. You know, do we have -- how much money do we have to preserve right of way, but, you know, again, where you don't preserve it, your options in the future are limited and where you do your options are -- are left open. So, I'm -- I'm very much in favor of that to the extent that we can do it. Where ever we can make it financially feasible we should -- we should do it. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 10 of 26 Overton: I echo both of your thoughts. Growing up here -- I look at this map now, I remember when most of those were twos. Eagle Road was two lanes. All these roads were very very small. It was farm roads. I went to high school with kids that got up in the dairy farms, which were our heritage -- to come to school. Well, that's changed. We have evolved as a community and I think we are not having enough foresight if we don't reserve that right of way on all of these roads now or we are going to end up with more issues like what we are trying to decide on Linder Road on that small stretch on how to make that work between a new overpass and a new bridge on the river. I think we owe it to the future of people sitting in these seats that are trying to preserve this right of way now to eliminate some of those future problems down the road on a deal with how to widen. Goldthorpe: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Commissioner Goldthorpe. Goldthorpe: Yep. Another echo here, along with the necessity of preserving the right of way if that's the way we go, which we are really serious about the -- there are some realities in terms of what's been going on with cost the last decade and what might be going on with costs the next decade, because as you -- as you already know none of this happens very quickly and the five million dollar miles that we used to have are now 15 and in some cases over 20 and that's just been while I have been sitting in my chair. It makes all the inflation numbers that we get fed every month by whatever source look ridiculous -- at least our industry does -- ridiculously low. And so what we decide to do, as important as that is, one of these days there will have to be a reckoning in terms of how we tax, how much we take in and tax. We won't have the benefit of all this printed money out of thin air in the very near future and the fact that you guys have -- have given us what you have given is the biggest reason why we were able to -- to take advantage timing wise and that ITD was convinced timing wise of making the Linder overpass area happen. I was just amazed at how that worked. So, when you see some of the areas on McMillan that have that ditch on the north side, knowing that that ditch has to get completely encased and, then, a road built on the top of whatever the encasement is, the rest of the east-west corridors are probably going to be developed in lightspeed compared to what might happen on McMillan and that's not saying anything negative about our intent, it's just kind of a casting a shadow of reality on some of it. Thanks. Hood: Mr. Mayor, can I just respond to that and -- and, again, I have my counsel here and online, so if I say anything out of turn, you know, how to slap me. But I think that is understood, Commissioner Goldthorpe, and I appreciate that. I -- I guess back to even Councilman Overton's comments, we aren't asking for it to be built or anything really done, just to preserve it, and I think part of what we have talked about before is land is not going down in -- in cost either, so -- in price. So, you know, the sooner we can acquire and preserve it is going to be cheaper than maybe longer terms when we have to come back and buy, you know, things are -- it's encumbered by buildings and parking lots and other things. It's certainly not going to be cheaper then. So, that is really the Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 11 of 26 request is to reserve -- figure out design later, maybe the road -- maybe we aren't even -- you know, tiling the ditch and -- and -- and putting travel lanes over it. There is other options. But, again, the starting point -- our request is to just preserve the right of way where we can, because, again, it's not going to be cheaper in the future we don't envision and it leaves the options open for what we can do with that right of way into the future. So, I appreciate the comments. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Commissioner Strader. Strader: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to echo Dave McKinney's -- Commissioner McKinney's comments. As someone that -- you know this is in my district, a big part of this corridor and it's definitely predominantly local traffic and I think it's really important for connectivity for people getting around and also because that Fields District in the northern part of the city will really be cut off if there isn't good connectivity, especially pedestrian connectivity, and so my -- I -- I totally echo the desire to preserve right of way. I think it's very smart for us to do and get agreement on. I guess my question is, you know, there were some pilings going in. Does anyone have an update on where we are at with the overpass and has there been any success in working with ITD to try to, you know, preserve as much as we can. Thank you. Hood: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Mr. Hood. Hood: I can address that, Council Woman Strader. Yes, what you see -- well, hopefully, you can see it online -- is what ITD is moving forward with. It is just 80 foot clear. However, we have had some initial conversations with ITD staff and you can do a constrained corridor. You still can fit four lanes and your pedestrian bike facilities. Accommodate drainage. It's tight, but this wouldn't necessarily be prohibitive of being widened in the future to be more than the three lanes that it's currently being built with. It was just too late in the process to change -- to redesign the -- the structure. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Commissioner Cavener. Cavener: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. A couple of just quick comments and, then, potentially a question. I just -- I want to thank our -- a couple of our Highway District commissioners for commenting favorably about this. I think it's really exciting for us in Meridian to see there is at least some open mindedness to -- to what we are proposing. I think to -- to Council Member Borton's point, this is a project that nobody that's in this room or virtual will ever be thanked for; right? This is future planning and by the time we can build this all out, doubtful that any of us will be there to be congratulated. But it's one of those things, too, that when it happens both agencies would be really credited Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 12 of 26 with forward thinking and, you know, I think to -- to Commissioner Goldthorpe's point, is as we were doing the last presentation with the -- the calendar of the Linder Road overpass and, you know, that -- that overpass being open potentially in -- in 2027, it -- it kind of fell on me that it's about ten years from when we really first started talking about that in a joint meeting with the Highway District. So, it takes a long time to move things forward, but it also goes by quickly and so maybe to that point, Mr. Mayor, Council President Pickering, or Caleb, what do you envision as kind of the next step or what would you like to see to keep this conversation moving in a positive direction, recognizing lots of details to be figured out, we haven't heard from everybody, but I just -- I don't want us to -- to let this positive momentum sit either. Simison: Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but if we were to update the master street map with this, then, as part of the development process we are able to work with the development community to get that preserved for the future and it's just what is a process to -- to go through the master street map update, how often does that occur? I will turn that to someone that knows. Wong: Yeah. Mr. Mayor, so we can suggest that update to the master street map. Director Wong. I mean I know we are like out of cycle, but we can make -- we can make those adjustments if we have got consensus from the Commission. Yeah. Right. And I do want to -- if I can, Mr. Mayor, respond to Councilman Cavener's point. I think this is a big -- this is a big update aside from your letter. It was very focused on McMillan. So, I'm just digesting everything that I'm hearing and processing it all and you are -- all of you are absolutely right that preserving right of way -- and I think generally if you listen back to previous commission conversations, we have been very open minded and, you know, looking to the future of preserving right of way where -- and where -- where and when we can to the most possible. I think the only thing that I am just kind of thinking about and mulling over is this -- and Commissioner Goldthorpe talked about this -- is the cost. So, you know, this is going to -- along with -- and you guys have a lot of widening projects. There is a lot of big impacts that your community is facing, especially with Highway 16 and so these are all very expensive projects and widening or preserving right of way for all of these corridors would be a pretty Herculean task. So, I think what I would love to know more -- and we could save this for a future conversation -- is, you know, there is going to have to be some tradeoffs. So, is that -- we -- we -- we would prioritize preserving right of way over widening for a year or two years; right? Or only these projects or if we want to preserve certain projects over others, if -- if we need to. I think those are the types of details that we would want to know, so we can give direction to our staff, so that they can be expeditious in fulfilling the city's goals and vision for that. But I'm happy to go back to staff and we can work to update the master street map and bring it up to the commission as soon as possible for a discussion, specifically to McMillan and, then, we could have a bigger discussion about all of the arterials and preserving that right of way. Simison: Maybe as part of that process if you can -- you know, when I look at the map I don't know how many areas it actually is going to impact, because you have lost Meridian, you have lost Locust Grove, you have lost a lot of McMillan currently. Victory. Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 13 of 26 When you get down to it, there may be seven or eight miles total that you could actually proactively plan for areas that haven't already been annexed where the impacts of -- if I'm looking at the map correctly, you know, I don't -- I don't think we are talking about going back to Pine and making Pine five lanes and you can't go back to the other areas and do it through the development process. That's really moving forward. What does that look and feel like? But it could be incorrect in that thought process or concept by just looking at what I see on the map. Wong: Well, Mr. Mayor, if I may, I think that that would be something we could have staff look into and provide a bigger update around how many actual miles are we talking about where is it consolidated, those types of things. And, then, I would hope we could still, then, get your direction after that report is complete. Simison: And -- and -- and maybe part of the concept is we would like to see everything be more than a three lane road and preserve in the future where we can, but if we have an opportunity to go back that we know that's what the hope is in that standpoint, but -- Hood: Mr. Mayor, just one minor point I think, because you hit kind of the clarification. Not that it's not insignificant. Every mile is hundreds of thousands, if not millions of more dollars, but Pine is not a section line arterial, so that one is off the table and that would be a mess to try to get the right of way in. So, that's not part of the request, because that was not a section line arterial. It is an arterial, but it's not on the section line. So, you did hit -- there are a few corridors and some segments in there. So, again, an impact for sure, but it isn't as significant as maybe it could be, because most of them are planned to be at least five lanes today. Hansen: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman. Hansen: Yeah. So, I'm pleased to hear this discussion. I think we should continue it. know from Boise's standpoint they have been well insisted. This ultimately is a land use decision. This really is about how you want to use your land. Land use decisions, then, get made based upon what the configuration of the -- of the network is and we went through a -- somewhat Herculean task in Boise to try and get the city's land use vision for Warm Springs changed in our master street map and ultimately did, because that reflects -- and it was the other direction. The map said it was going to be five lanes and development -- and we lost opportunities to put in things like roundabouts and certain things that the developer could have paid for. We lost that opportunity. Now, the features that need to be put in the taxpayers are going to have to pick up that tab, because the developers are done. So, it's really important I think ACHD respond to the land use priorities of the -- of the cities and if the direction from the city is that we really want these to be mobility corridors every mile and that affects the land use decisions and developers will say, well, this is the kind of development I want to put on a -- on an arterial, a big arterial, and this is the kind of development I don't want to, people tend not to want to live right next to a really busy arterial, but sometimes you can get businesses. Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 14 of 26 So, it varies. But that's a land use decision and I think that's really important and so that's the -- the way I would go. I know Boise has some priorities. We have actually pushed to have the master street map updated based upon the city's priorities, not waiting for development, and so when the city comes in and says I want to have these changes made, Eagle came in and we made some changes. Boise's come in, we have made some changes. Kuna. So, Meridian is the same. We want to make sure that it reflects the current vision of each of the land use agencies and, you know, that's -- it's a very different vision from the areas -- we have arterials. We have two and three lane arterials in the area I represent, which will never be enlarged. Boise Avenue. Hill Road. Parts of Maple Grove. Parts of Five Mile -- that the city will never want to expand out. They don't see them as mobility corridors, they see them as drawing neighborhoods. They want to see more investment on a neighborhood level and so it's a different kind of vision for that area and so I think it's critical that ACHD follow the land use vision of -- of the neighborhoods in each of the -- each of the cities that we -- we cover. And if that's the direction that Meridian wants to go, obviously -- you have to realize, you know, when you expand a road you expand a road. Eagle Road gave us a good lesson. We thought, well, going to a bunch of lanes that means it will move really fast. Well, you can't widen yourself out of congestion. We are going to have congestion on five lane road, in seven lane roads, we are just going to have it, because most of the west -- western part of the Treasure Valley is built for dependence on motor vehicles and Highway 16 is going to increase the amount of congestion that's going to be on Franklin and on the -- on Ustick. It's just going to happen, because that's the way in which -- that's the direction we are going. But, you know, if this is a priority for the City of Meridian, I think we should -- and that's a specific decision that's been made by the -- by the representatives of the city, just as I -- I hope that ACHD always respects the -- the priorities of the other cities. Simison: Thank you. Maybe just two cents, you know, and I -- I don't disagree with anything you said, so I think it all is interconnected and relevant. I think if you -- you know, well before I think most of us were here and decisions were made on Meridian Road only needed three lanes, because of the land use around it, I -- I think what I would suggest is in Meridian, from what I see, land use doesn't dictate traffic anymore. -- it's -- you know, especially when we are a through destination for many, whether it's to go to Eagle Road for whatever it offers or people going to work, you know, we just have people driving on all the roads all the time going in every direction no matter where the -- where you live and the land use decisions to try to adjust to the roadside, probably had some challenges and that viewpoint at one point was probably the right thing that was talked about, but the outcome 20 years later is just different, because people -- it's not how they choose to drive. They see section line road. It's going to be great for two miles and it drops down to one and that's the way they are going to go to get that faster two miles and so I think it's commuter patterns, which are impacting everything as much as land use anymore personally. I don't have anything to back that up. I'm not a land use person, but land use I don't think -- that is great in making decisions for three lane roadways 25 years ago. So, yes, more to come; right? Okay. All right. Thank you. Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 15 of 26 3. Integrated Five Year Work Plan Kickoff Presentation Simison: So, with that we will move on to Item 3, which is Integrated Five Year Work Plan. Inselman: Well, good evening, Mr. Pres -- Mr. Mayor, Madam President. I almost said the opposite. Council Members and -- and our Commission. So, my name is Kristy Inselman. I'm the planning supervisor at Ada County Highway District and it is under our group that we develop the Integrated Five Year Work plan every year. It's an annual update and so I'm just here as kind of the kickoff of the Integrated Five Year Work Plan to, believe it or not, the '25 to '29 Integrated Five Year Work Plan. We recently just did our kickoff in December. We did an outreach to all of our partner agencies on -- provided them updated lists. So, in this presentation I'm going to kind of go over what was adopted as part of the '24 to '28 Integrated Five Year Work Plan and, then, some highlights of the process coming up for the next '25 to '29. It feels like it's a circular process and we are always working on it, which is absolutely true. So, the next few slides are just going to be some highlights of the projects in the City of Meridian that are programmed for construction. I specifically am pulling out just construction years. So, for '24 -- and I won't necessarily go through each and every one of these, although I will hit some of the highlights. So, for 2024 projects in north Meridian we have several maintenance projects coming your way in a bike way signage. Meridian south has some bigger items that are coming up that are both -- they are City of Meridian. So, Eagle, Lake Hazel to Amity, will start construction this year, as well as the intersection at Lake Hazel and Eagle. We also have Lake Hazel, State Highway 16 -- or, sorry, State Highway 69, because I can't read -- Meridian Road to Locust Grove. That is one that is a cooperative development project that we are doing. It's kind of nice when we can get those done through the development -- large developments happening in the area and we can kind of accelerate some of those projects. Lake Hazel, Eagle to Locust Grove, was another project and that intersection was another cooperative development project. In 2025 we have some big projects coming up. You will start seeing in '25 those projects that are tied to the Highway 16 -- State Highway 16 project being accelerated, finally coming into the construction years. So, we have Ustick and Black Cat Intersection, Ustick, Black Cat to Ten Mile, as well as Lake Hazel, Eagle to Cloverdale project. So, all of the -- well, that's not to Highway 16, but just highlighting some of the big projects are coming in '25. '26 we have quite a few projects. These are in more of our out years of our program. So, some of these years are over programmed. Every year we update an Integrated Five Year Work Plan. The first two years are tied directly to our budget, so this next iteration it will be '25 and '26, it will be tied directly to our budget. So, in the out years we tend to overprogram a little bit, so that we can be flexible to additional funding sources that may come our way. Highway 16 funds are an example of that. Strategic fund, examples of that. So, some of these -- these are with a little bit of an eye of -- they may not stay in that year, but that's what they are currently sitting at. We always try to move projects forwards as we go along. Projects in 2027. Again, here is some -- the ones that were -- have dedicated funding, like the Highway 16 projects, those we intend to keep on that track. We have Ustick at McDermott, that section for Ustick. Owyhee Storm to Black Cat. That's the section that will be widened Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 16 of 26 out to the high school that's out there. And here is some '28. So, as you guys can see there is quite a few projects coming to the City of Meridian. There is a lot going on, a lot of very large projects coming into the City of Meridian. These are pulled directly from the Integrated Five Year Work Plan sheets. We do divide our sheets up by neighborhood planning area. It just makes it a little bit more digestible to the public, because most of the people from the public, they want to know what's happening near them. So, we have divided them up that way and the icons you see on the screen that's on those sheets identifies what components are going with those projects, if you are not familiar with our sheets. So, ped, ADA, bike, vehicular capacity and maintenance are how we break those up. And, then, a whole bunch of projects sitting in the future. So, I didn't count them all, but I think we have over a hundred to 150 projects in the City of Meridian currently in the Integrated Five Year Work Plan. Another component that we look at when we are developing the Integrated Five Year Work Plan -- so, every single year we also do what's called a scoping effort. So, before a project can be added into the Integrated Five Year Work Plan it needs to be evaluated for feasibility. Can the project actually be constructed? What components need to be in it? Sometimes we will get a request for just sidewalk, but, then we look at that project more holistically. Is it just a -- is it sidewalk? Is it maintenance? Is it pedestrian crossing? Is it adding capacity? So, we look at it more holistically. So, these are projects that we have in our fiscal year '24 scoping effort. We scope approximately 50 to 60 projects each year. Some are -- we need to get a much more -- a much better idea of what the cost estimate is going to be of a project. It may have been something that was in our 2020 CIP where we had a very high level cost estimate and not drill down into the specifics. Bridges, crossings, all of that -- those lovely components. So, the scoping allows us to do a deeper dive and get a much more dialed in cost estimate. So, you will see on this list there are some that are already in the plan, but we need a more detailed cost estimate and to kind of suss out some of the improvements that also need to go with it. And, then, I always like to throw a little bit of looking into the future. So, whenever we are developing the Integrated Five Year Work Plan, as projects are completed, we are moving new projects in. So, some of the things that we are looking in Meridian -- so, there is a bevy of locations that we look for new projects that come into the Integrated Five Year Work Plan. You see at the top of that list is the City of Meridian prioritization list. So, these are just some -- and these are not holistic, these are not the only projects. These are just some -- to give you an idea of what we look at when we are updating the Integrated Five Year Work Plan. So, we look at the list that the City of Meridian provides to us as what their priorities are. We look at the CIP, which is your major arterial intersections and roadways and what we are showing a forecasted need is coming in. You can see there are several on Black Cat, Amity, Cherry that in the current Integrated Five Year Work Plan it's showing a forecasted need of 2031 to 2035. So, we are going to start looking at an eye on those potentially coming into the program and also neighborhood plans. So, when I had said that we divide the entire county up into a neighborhood planning area, that's also tied to another effort that we do is we go out to the public and ask them what their needs are in those communities. It's a big deeper dive. We get a really great long list of projects that people would like to see in their area. So, we do pull projects from there as well and they do get ranked high, medium and low, which ones are high priorities, which are low and these are some Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 17 of 26 examples and you will see like what we are looking at. So, even some of the ones that are neighborhood plan projects, they still need to be scoped. We still need to do a deeper dive before they could be actually added into the Integrated Five Year Work Plan. And my last slide here is kind of -- this is a schedule of this year's Integrated Five Year Work plan. As I said, we did an outreach to all of our partner agencies back in December. We sent letters out to all of our partners, which are the six cities, the school districts, VRT and BSU, where we reach out, ask for what your priorities are as an organization and that helps us in better understanding what the needs of your community are. So, we did that in December. We also launched our public outreach tool to the public of Ada county to see what public -- projects that they would like to recommend to you and to us. That tool to date -- we launched it on January 9th and it goes through February 9th. Today we have over 500 new project requests and we have over a thousand page views. Last year we did a similar effort. This one we tried to tailor it a little bit more, because the public said they wanted more information. So, we are getting a lot of really great feedback on existing projects, as well as potential future projects that we haven't identified as of yet. So, the partner agencies -- we are asking that all of our partner agencies provide their prioritization list by March 15th. All of your staff are wonderful to work with and they have been hard at work. I just talked to Caleb this evening. So, we are very excited to see those lists and those tie into -- we -- we take all of the partner agency requests and we put them through our industry leading prioritization methodology and that helps us even get a better understanding of which projects potentially would be added to the plan and their road intersections are prioritized differently than community program projects. So, we look at is it tied directly to a school? Is it part of a school walk route? Those get higher points in our methodology than say, you know, a hundred foot of sidewalk that doesn't tie into a school or isn't part of a walk route. Is it on the partner agencies priority list. If you guys say it's a priority, that project gets a lot more points to it. If it's part of a transportation dependent community where they -- a large -- a large percentage they don't drive, they walk or they bike, that gets a higher percentage and this is just under community programs prioritization. So, we will be doing that as soon as we receive your requests and we will -- it takes us about two months to do that process, because we have -- we will not prioritize every single project there right now. We have thousands of projects that have come to us with needs throughout Ada county. So, we -- one hundred percent will be prioritizing all of the partner agency requests. So, everything you guys give us will be prioritized against ones we already have in the queue, as well as all the other partner agencies. So, it helps us see across county wide what's rising to the top and, then, moving forward just through the process in July is when we will release the initial draft of the Integrated Five Year Work Plan. That goes back out to our partners. There is another opportunity for our partners to give us feedback on what we have developed. Do we miss the mark? Are there things you would like to see accelerated with the -- the goal of an adoption at the end of September. So, there is -- as you can see from this short little slide there is a lot of opportunities to be involved in that process and that is all I have for you this evening, because we are -- we are -- we are getting a deep dive into it. We don't have a lot of details for you yet, so that's why we focused on the '24 to '28. But I will stand for any questions. Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 18 of 26 Simison: Thank you, Kristy. Caleb, do you want to just quickly chime in where we are in the city, so Council knows -- Hood: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm sure the ACHD Commissioners have heard some version of that before. So, yeah, to our Council and kind of where we are at in this process. A working group of the Transportation Commission actually met last Monday and have put forward their draft recommended changes and additions and subtractions to the list of priority projects for this next year, both programmed and unprogrammed. That will go to the Transportation Commission. They have a meeting this upcoming Monday. So, a week from today. And, then, shortly thereafter I will -- I will work with Mayor's Chief of Staff, Council President Borton, on getting that on a work session on one of Council agendas probably mid -- mid -- yeah, mid to late February, certainly to meet the March 15th deadline that ACHD has imposed on all the cities and other partner agencies. Maybe just one more point of -- to -- to help advertise for those that may be listening to this or if you as individuals want to go on to the ACHD website you can still participate for another ten days or so. So, just go to ACHD's website and you can just search for the Integrated Five Work Plan. You can go to the -- to review on their public outreach map. You can rank identified projects. You can read more about the projects identified. You can also drop a pin. Kristy mentioned this, but there is a new project suggestion link that you can also click if you want to add to the list of a thousand or however many you have so far. You can review the ones that are already there or add your new ones, too. So, just go to ACHD's website sometime in the next ten days if you want to review what's there. Thank you. Inselman: We have over -- just under --just over or under 600 comments so far on that map and it's part of our engage tool as well, so we -- because we have people that subscribe to the ACHD engage page and so when we first launched this we sent an e- mail to over 9,000 subscribers asking them to participate. We also do social media outreach. We work with our partners. Some of our partners -- we send a media toolkit out to all of our partners if they want to put it on their website to show that link. Several of them have done that and we -- we love to get those comments and it's actually -- it's kind of fun, because on the -- where you drop a pin for a new project, everybody that has dropped a pin, anybody can go in and see it. So, you can go see what your neighbors have dropped and what comments they have had. So, you can even go on and comment and say, yeah, that's great, we love this. This is a great idea. So, we found it to be a very very useful tool in helping us develop the plan to be the best that it can be, so -- Simison: Questions? Pickering: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Commission President Pickering. Pickering: Yeah. Thank you, Caleb, for that plug. I want to just highlight -- if you haven't been on the -- the new website, please, visit. It's lovely. And, then, also just that Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 19 of 26 feature is so intuitive. We hadn't offered that drop a new pin on a separate clean map previously. So, it kind of was a little bit confusing for folks that aren't engaging in our website really frequently. So, really, suggest that you all take a peek at that and as Kristy talked about subscribe to -- you can -- we have a new feature on our website where you can actually subscribe to projects and any locate in these particular locations. We will give you guys updates on all different phases of those projects and I think that's going to be a great way for -- not only public to keep abreast of what's going on, but also you guys as well and knowing what's going on in your district and our communications team has done a fabulous job trying to reach people where they are at and make sure that they know everything that's going on in their neighborhood and the broader community and all different types of projects, they can self-select all of those features. Inselman: And, Madam President, just one more -- one more -- just one more plug on that tool. We did just recently -- because I am that way sometimes, I'm not the most tech savvy when it comes to things and we do have some of our community members that aren't. So, we just launched -- I believe it went live on the page today. We did a video tutorial as well and our wonderful communications team put that there to help guide you through how to use that tool. So, we have a lot of -- a lot of great things on that page, so we are pretty excited. Hansen: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Commissioner Hansen. Hansen: Mr. Mayor, Madam President, I just want to reiterate that we -- this is really important to the priorities of the cities. It's all about trips. You know, there is a -- there is a lot of times you will find -- and -- and that's why I love that -- that you are represented by districts, because you have that much more familiarity with neighborhoods, that people would make a trip -- would walk someplace if a certain sidewalk is filled or if a certain crosswalk is safer for their kids or to go to this school. But that kind of detail you know about in -- in areas where there is also homeowners or neighborhood associations the neighborhood associations are all out there saying get your information in and HOAs we treat the same way. So, even if there may not be a neighborhood association. So, use your networks now and tell them go in, tell me, is there a place where you just as soon -- would prefer to walk to a coffee shop or to a park. What is -- what is there about the right of way that makes it dangerous. So, that, you know, the area I represent -- there is a real high priority of try and get as many trips to be shorter or by other means than car, because one more car just means more congestion and so when -- when we can do that by the investment of a crosswalk or by the filling of sidewalk gaps -- and I must say a lot have -- under the leadership of Commissioner Goldthorpe, we have got a lot more sidewalk gaps we have filled over the last ten years, because it's like let's fill these things, because they were left out when the development happened years and years ago. So, there is that opportunity to do that to try and make those trips multi-modal trips work for people and not every single trip has to be by car and it -- it -- it -- it just pays off in the long run and, then, once you -- we also have this -- Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 20 of 26 we haven't mentioned it. We have this philosophy that we want to be one and done. If we can get all of these ideas on and it -- sometimes it takes years, we can get it all done. A crosswalk, a new pavement, a couple of other things, get it done and we don't have to go back to that again and that concrete's there for another hundred years. Simison: Any additional questions or comments? Borton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Borton. Borton: Kristy, I just have got a question for you. The -- the Five Year Work Plan, which our staff and our Commission we work really hard to provide that input, which -- because we appreciate the ask and the ability to weigh heavily on what is a priority in Meridian, but to the earlier discussion and Commission President Pickering's comments about trade-offs, made me wonder -- I seem to recall the Five Year Work Plan most often tethers right of way acquisition right immediately preceding construction, relatively speaking. So, a question maybe for you or maybe for -- for the commissioners, is it -- is that close connection driven purely based on budget or it seems as though if there is an opportunity to right of way acquisition well before construction, is it a -- is it a philosophy to connect those closely or -- or a philosophy to not allow right of way acquisition to occur six, eight, ten years prior to construction? Inselman: Mr. Mayor, Madam President, Council Member Borton, so we get right of way through a variety of ways. So, when a development comes through that's going to precede -- a lot of times that might precede as widening a roadway and so part of their requirement is to dedicate that right of way. So, we get it then and, then, when we are actually working a project through the Integrated Five Year Work Plan when we have designs for that project we want to continue moving that project forward and sometimes right of way can take a while. Right now it's taking us on average for most of our projects about a year and a half and we don't want a big gap between the design being done and, then, acquiring right of way, because they are tied very directly. So, we know -- we are only taking as much right of way as what we exactly need to construct that project and not more and so we want them to follow very closely. If there is a -- we will sometimes -- there -- there is sometimes there may be a gap and you will see that with the Five Year Work Plan there may be a gap with getting the design done, getting the right of way acquired and, then, construction, because a lot of times that's the biggest dollar amount that we are trying to work within. So, you will sometimes see a gap of a year or two, but we generally try to get that right of way as closely to design as we possibly can, because, again, prices do keep increasing on property. So, we try to get it as quickly as we can and if we see opportunities in -- in other avenues to purchase right of way ahead of time we do, if we know it's going to be a large buyout. But for the -- for the most part that's how we are acquiring right of way. I hope that answers your question. Simison: Okay. Any additional questions? Commissioner Goldthorpe. Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 21 of 26 Goldthorpe: Thanks. I'm used to seeing green lights and red lights and mostly red for me. But, anyhow, sometimes when -- and I will use Victory Middle School for an example on Stoddard Road. You know, that -- that's being designed. It's been designed. There has been all kinds of really good public input. But it's to be determined as far as when it gets built. But in the middle of all of the process we found out how unsafe the intersection there was in front of the middle school on Stoddard and so we went out and took a look at it. I was there. Watched a couple of cross guards go flying into the bushes instead of getting killed and it was a mess and so -- so we immediately very -- in a very rapid fashion made some changes to that intersection, so that it was safer and that will continue to happen without going into the Five Year Work Plan. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Yeah. I was going to just ask a quick question, which is, you know, we put a ton of work into the Pedestrian Safety Task Force and just want to understand how we are using that to prioritize our community projects or how that will integrate into the plans going forward from both sides. Simison: Mr. Hood. Hood: Yeah. Mr. Mayor, thank you. Council Woman Strader, I can update you on that. I have actually had conversations with a handful of staff over the last couple of weeks. Honestly, most of those projects will probably not be routed through ACHD's Integrated Five Year Work Plan. I think some of them are going to be maintenance. Some of them are going to be code enforcement type of requests. Some of them, through Ryan Head and the leading pedestrian interval program that's already in process, so not really through what Kristy's talking about and capital projects, most of those recommendations there are ancillary and Mr. Miles and myself and others are still trying to kind of figure that out where they may go. Maybe it's police and enforcement, maybe it's, again, maintenance here or -- but, again, to answer your question more directly, not a lot of the recommendations in that report are likely to be included. Now, there are some -- there are some upgraded crossings and intersection improvements that -- that are on the list and are being considered and maybe we will see, but those are fewer than -- than you may have may have thought or expected through the Integrated Five Year Work Plan. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Yeah. That's good to hear. I mean I -- I think my main emphasis is just to make sure we are not losing sight of the work and that the follow up is happening, whether it's the City of Meridian needs to upgrade our street lights at an intersection or whether it's ACHD we believe needs to put in a crosswalk, whatever it is, just want to make sure that the ownership is there and -- and that it's being kind of handled through Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 22 of 26 the appropriate channels. That's all. And I just wanted to make one comment which was, you know, I do feel like our agencies are working together really closely and that we are communicating a lot more than -- than we had in previous councils and previous ACHD commissions and I just want to compliment both agencies and ACHD in particular for keeping the lines of communication way open and listening a lot more to what cities need. I appreciate that. Hood: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Yes, go ahead, Mr. Hood. Hood: Just to sort of echo those comments and -- and thank Council Woman Strader for her involvement and leadership. Councilman Overton. President Pickering was part of that, the MIPS -- what we love affectionately refer to as the MIPS and -- and we will be reaching out to you again, ACHD, with some of these kind of ancillary requests that came about from that study. But I do appreciate those lines of communication and involvement from ACHD staff and our police department and others. The school district. And COMPASS. And I really do think that that effort -- there is some good things that came about in that report and next steps and I'm -- I'm hopeful that other cities maybe follow the lead and look at doing something very similar. So, I know when we set out that was kind of one of the goals was something that can be repeatable in other communities, not just Meridian. We are not the only ones in -- in the county with these similar types of issues. So, anyways, thank you for all that were part of that already and going forward, too. Simison: And just to reiterate, anything that needs to be -- if it's a five year work-related project or -- or whatnot, we will put it there. Otherwise, you could see it through the budget from the city, if it's a project that it should be our responsibility or it's nebulous, so it's not forgotten, they are moving forward and if it's necessary we will be seeing them integrated. Okay. Thank you, Kristy. 4. Ada County Highway District Ustick Road Facility Simison: So, up next will be the update on the Ada County Highway District Ustick Road facility and just if I can, since we were just talking to you, as you come forward, just kind of related to our last conversation, I just want to do a public shout out to Dave Miles. Just this last week -- and our Parks Department -- we were able to get the connection made to Mary McPherson through the Simplot property. So, we now have a pathway connection that allows the school district to have a way to not have to bus people within that square mile should they choose to go that direction, but we do have a safe connection to Mary McPherson after -- well, many -- yeah. I mean how long has the school been there? Like a long time. But a safe walkway to the school now. So, thank you, Dave, for your diligence in working with Simplot and the irrigation district, the school, Parks Department, to help make that happen. Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 23 of 26 Berenger: Hi. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Madam President, Council Members, Commission. Jennifer Berenger for the record. Deputy Director of Maintenance for Ada County Highway District. Do we have slides? Did they get -- you might not have sent the slides. No worries. No worries. So, I will just give a quick update on the development of the Ustick yard on Ustick. So, things are going really well, actually. So, we are currently at our 60 percent design on development of that yard and we are going to be hitting our one hundred percent design in May of this year. We have it phased out so there is a seven year build timeline once we break ground and breaking ground will be around July of this year and, then, phase build for -- for seven years to completion, estimated around 2031. Everything with the Ustick Road widening is also on track. We are currently in design -- I'm sorry -- in right of way procurement for the -- for Ustick yard. So, we had it tied in the DA that the road widening would happen in advance of the yard being built out. We are looking for the slides. There really are some cool slides, so it would be good. Okay. I will just keep going. Ustick Road widening is going to be going out for bid later this year. They are already in right of way going out for bid. So, construction should begin late this year, early next year with a completion in late '25, early '26. As you may recall from previous presentations, we are building up the Ustick yard with all aspects of our maintenance. So, one of the -- the critical factors now that we are in winter, knowing that we will have a faster timeline for -- for winter response, but -- but all -- all areas of maintenance will be represented there. So, we will have street sweepers, our decant facility and drainage trucks, as well as full service fleet shop as well. So, the benefits are that we are building to the -- to the need of the community that we have right now and expanding for our future growth. What we know as the county is growing, we are growing in that direction as well. So, having our footprint there will reduce our response timelines for maintenance operations. We did receive design approved by Meridian -- Meridian Planning Division in November of 2023. 1 will kind of flip through the slide, since I'm going out of order here. This is the -- the usage maintenance complex. The -- the full view of our 3D rendering. So, it's very cool. We have got -- what you are seeing in the foreground is the administrative building and, then, we are fully fencing the -- the maintenance complex and behind that multiple buildings, such as our -- our fleet operations, our broom shed, drainage shed, decant facility and tucked all the way back in the corner is the salt shed and a few ancillary buildings. Kind of talked to this already, what buildings we are putting in and the benefit to the community. Okay. And this is the slide I was just talking to. So, design was approved by the planning division in November. The pathway on the north end of the property is progressing very well. The bulk of the pathway is complete and they are just working toward the bridge placement that's going over the Five Mile Canal. We are at 60 percent. We will be hitting our hundred percent in May and the ground breaking in July of this year. This -- this chart would have been very difficult for me to talk to without having the chart. But this is for the current Integrated Five Year Work Plan and it shows the -- all the road projects and it's been said multiple times, you know, we go in once. Council Member Strader asked about pedestrian projects. What I really wanted to show on this slide is everything feeding together where the little orange spot is, where the yard is, but there are multiple roadway projects. Three main segments that I have listed on the top and the dates of those design right of way and construction years and, then, on the bottom all of those blocks correspond to the circles on the -- on Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 24 of 26 the map and those are intersections or pedestrian crossings or bridges. So, there is a lot going on on this corridor for improvement and everything is really tied together and, then, my final slide really with -- with the bulk of the information is to talk about how this -- I have said this before, it's a multi-yard phased approach. So, not only are we doing the Ustick yard, ACHD is also in the midst of developing our Franklin traffic operations center. We are working on our Apple maintenance yard and there is everything that's going on with the Adams maintenance yard where the goal is -- we are moving out of the Adams yard to the Apple yard. So, as we are looking at all of those pieces and parts, making sure they all flow together and the timelines kind of line up and budget is going to be a big piece of this. So, as we go into our 60 percent we will get a better fidelity on what our budget's going to look like and we will have a little bit better idea of of the timeline on how construction is going to plan out, because building two yards -- three yards really with the Franklin yard all simultaneously, we have -- we have got to take those steps in a metered approach. And there is the summary. So, everything is currently in design. Hundred percent is just on the horizon in May and we are doing a seven-year phase build out. Originally when I presented it was an eight year, so we have been able to compress that a little bit. And, then, our Ustick Road widening is all on track as well. So, with that I will stand for any questions. Simison: Thank you. Council, Commission, questions, comments? Pickering; Mr. Mayor? Simison: Commission President Pickering. Pickering: Thank you. I just want to say thank you to Jennifer and her team. I hope that -- I think, if you remember a few years back when this was on your agenda, you know, one of your -- a couple of your concerns were, obviously, Ustick, but also to make sure that our yard is complementary to the neighborhood and the corridor that it's going to be occupying. So I hope that you all are pleased with that, because we have made substantial efforts to align with how you guys want to see it along the corridor there and it's been such a great process that we have applied similar thoughts to the rest of our yards that are coming on deck. So, just wanted to say thank you for your leadership and support for this important project and I just want to double down on Jennifer's piece. You know, with, obviously, the snow operations and the last few of events you can tell how important it is that we have these yards fully functional, so that we -- when we have events like that that were not compromised and by having this bigger yard that's closer to home to you guys, we can have that improved response rate and have additional equipment to service Meridian. So, it's a big piece of this bigger puzzle and I'm really pleased with how it's coming along. McKinney: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Commissioner McKinney. Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 25 of 26 McKinney: Jennifer, just a clarification. And I think it's worth pointing out and -- and correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that this Ustick maintenance yard doesn't have direct access onto Ustick Road. Instead, it only has access onto Naomi Drive. Berenger: Naomi. McKinney: Access to Ustick will be through the signalized intersection that's being put in there. Berenger: That is correct. McKinney: Okay. And I think that's -- I think that's a relevant point, because it has a -- it will have a big effect on the -- the functioning -- or at least that has a fair -- an effect on the functioning of Ustick Road. One question I have with regard to the timing of the project, you have given us the date for when it's going to be complete, but correct me if I'm wrong, is it going to begin functioning before it's fully complete instead? Isn't there a date before then when it will be start -- begin operations and when's that going to be? Berenger: Yes, Council Members, Commissioner, we can have initial operations at an earlier date. It's -- it's -- our focus on the front end is going to be building the decant facility and -- and the salt and sand operations for winter operations. So, we will have the capability to operate out of the yard at an earlier time. It's not an all and done. So, as soon as -- since we have kind of a phased approach at what -- which buildings are going to be coming, we put a priority on the things that we know we need to get out here to Meridian first and we will have those initial operations as early as 2027 1 think we will be able to have that. So, building the decant facility '25, '26 and, then, being able to have those pieces and parts. Yeah. Early operations in 2027. McKinney: And so the -- the first operations that will work out of that yard will be the snow removal operations, is that kind of what's -- what's -- Berenger: Decant is a really critical piece of it. I would say being able to use our -- have our sweeper operations move into there and -- and use the decant, but, then, quickly following that would be the winter operations. McKinney: Thank you. Borton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Borton. Borton: Prior to that, though, if I recall, the Ustick Road improvements, in particular the deceleration lane on the north side heading west, that's done prior to -- Berenger: Yes. So, in 2025 when the construction really kicks off for that segment, the deceleration lane is built into that project. Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting January 29,2024 Page 26 of 26 Simison: And if I could just add, I think that I want to say thank you to ACHD on the corridor out to Owyhee. I mean that's really -- you know, someone who lives south at -- near Mountain View and to finally get that road completed many years after that school and this is actually coming light years ahead compared to use that as a comparison point in life, but the rate Owyhee High School basketball team is performing, you know, people are going to be flocking out there and they do it at night when the -- in the winter time when the roads are challenging and to have that improvement will just hopefully make that a safer experience for all going out that direction and it's tying into Highway 16 when it's built is just going to enhance to that corridor. So, we appreciate it. I appreciate it. I assume everyone else here does as well to help get to that important connection point in our community. All right. Thank you very much. We have reached the end of our agenda. Is there anything else for the good of the order? If not, do I have a motion to adjourn? Borton: Mr. Mayor, I move we adjourn. Simison: I have a motion to adjourn. All in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it. We are adjourned. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 7:29 P.M. (AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) MAYOR ROBERT E. SIMISON 2/20/2024 ATTEST: CHRIS JOHNSON - CITY CLERK