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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-01-13 Joint Meeting with ACHD Meridian City Council -ACHD Joint January 13, 2026. A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 4:31 p.m. Tuesday, January 13, 2026, by Mayor Robert Simison. Members Present: Robert Simison, Liz Strader, John Overton, Doug Taylor, Anne Little Roberts and Brian Whitlock. Members Absent: Luke Cavener. Other Present: Chris Johnson, Bill Nary, Caleb Hood. ROLL-CALL ATTENDANCE X Liz Strader X Brian Whitlock Anne Little Roberts X John Overton _X_ Doug Taylor Luke Cavener X Mayor Robert E. Simison ACHD _X_ Patricia Nilsson _X_Alexis Pickering _X_ Miranda Gold _X_ Kent Goldthorpe _X_ Dave McKinney Simison: All right. We will call this meeting to order. For the record it is January 13th, 2026, at 4:31 p.m. for this joint meeting of the Meridian City Council and the Ada County Highway District Commission. We will begin this meeting with roll call attendance. Simison: You can open up yours as well. Gold: I will call the meeting to order on our side. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA Simison: Okay. With that we will move on to adoption of the agenda. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: Move to adopt the agenda as published. Little Roberts: Second. Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting. January 13,2026 Page 2 of 23 Simison: Have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda published. Is there any discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it and the agenda is agreed to. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. DISCUSSION TOPICS [Action Item] 1. Review of 2026 Meridian Projects Simison: Anything you need to -- okay. All right. Then we will move on to the first item which will -- and before we get started I just want to say welcome to the ACHD Commission and staff who are here. It's always great to get together and have these -- what we try to do once or twice a year engagements and with a lot of stuff going on in the valley and we -- we are here to focus on a couple of items specifically here in the community that have come up through both City Council meetings, as well as major projects that are underway, but welcome to the conversation and with that we will kick off Item 1 with the review of the 2026 Meridian projects. Good evening or late afternoon, whichever one it is at 4:30 in the afternoon. McCarthy: Good evening. I'm Brian McCarthy, the manager of the right-of-way and project management team at ACHD and I will be covering the 2026 projects that are taking place in Meridian. There is a lot of great projects going on, many of which are the top priorities for the city. I will start here with a lot of projects on Ustick roadway. So, these are State Highway 16 supported projects. You can see there is four of them here on Ustick alone. These are all for roadway widenings, adding multi-use pathways, and a lot of them are in conjunction and coordination with the State Highway 16. The top three projects here are all under construction. The -- the most well underway is Ustick from Black Cat to Ten Mile Road. We are wrapping up construction this spring on that project and, then, we have a joint project with the City of Nampa and Nampa Highway District for Ustick Road from Phyllis Canal to Owyhee Storm. That project is underway and expected to wrap up towards the end of this year and, then, a project that we just kicked off construction just recently is the Ustick Road, Ten Mile to Linder project, and construction for that will be going on for the next year as well. Two projects that we are currently purchasing property for in the right-of-way phase is the Ustick, McDermott to Black Cat, and McDermott intersection. We are kicking off the right-of- way acquisitions right now and are getting that ready to build and prepare for construction starting in 2027. The next one is Franklin Road. Same with Ustick. Widening of Franklin Road, starting on the right-of-way acquisitions and preparing for construction as well in 2027. So, a lot going on on the Ustick corridor here. Some other projects in the city that we are working on. The number one community programs project for the City of Meridian is Stoddard from Victory to Overland. We are starting the property acquisition purpose -- process for that project and, again, looking to get that ready for construction in 2027. That will be adding multi-use pathways and filling in some of the gaps that exist there, as well as roadway reconstruction and constructing a three lane roadway on Stoddard. The Locust Grove Bridge project -- it is a bridge Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting. January 13,2026 Page 3 of 23 crossing on the Ten Mile Creek just South of Victory Road. We just finished design on that. We will be purchasing some property and getting that ready for construction as well in 2027 and the Linder Road from Pine to Ustick project, which, as you recall, there is a -- a multi-year right-of-way acquisition phase that we are starting on with this project for -- for that corridor due to the nature of the -- the corridor and the amount of property purchases that are required for that -- for this segment. This is the first year we are starting the property acquisition and we have two million budgeted for this project in 2026 that we will start purchasing some of those homes along that corridor. The Linder Road overpass, which is the city's number one priority project I will touch on a little further in -- in this presentation, but we are getting ready to build that project as well and also the Black Cat railroad crossing, which I will also touch on a little bit. We are kicking off design on that project. That's the number three community programs request for the city. We are also kicking off design on two of the major river crossings, the Linder Road from Chinden to State. We are negotiating an agreement right now just to begin design to widen that road, as well as all the bridge crossings. There is seven bridges on that corridor, including all the -- the river -- Boise River crossings. We will be designing that and then -- through the next two years and, then, we will be phasing that over three phases to get that right of way purchased and the projects constructed over three separate phases to -- to get that accomplished. Similar with Star Road. It's a river crossing from Chinden to State. We are kicking off design of that project as well right now and we will have that -- we are planning for two phases for that project for design and, then, also for right of way and construction. This summer chip seal is also taking place in the City of Meridian. So, Zone 7 that is highlighted there in the yellow that is planned for the -- this summer of 2026. There will be a lot more outreach and details as we get closer to the -- to chip seal season. Now, touching on the Black Cat railroad crossing. This is a project that we accelerated working with Idaho Transportation Department in seeking federal funding. There is 675,000 federal funds to improve this crossing -- the railroad crossing of Black Cat and the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. We will be updating the existing stop control intersection with signals and gates and on this project we are finalizing the state-local agreement with the Idaho Transportation Department and as soon as that's done we will be starting design and planning for construction in 2027 where the funding is -- is programmed. The Linder Road overpass. So, Linder Road, Overland to Franklin, phase one is complete. So, that's great. This picture right here is the picture of the construction at Overland and Linder. To the north you could see the -- the roadway of the new connection that will be going up to and over the overpass that is currently closed off, but it -- it has been constructed. That project was built with the strategic initiatives funding that the City of Meridian received through the ITD and for the entire corridor from Linder, Overland to Franklin, we have completed the right-of-way phase as well. So, major milestone of getting that accomplished. There were five full property acquisitions on that project that we have worked through. Now, what's to come for Linder and overpass project? We are wrapping up some items with the Idaho Transportation Department. We are finalizing our agreement with them to oversee construction and inspection tied to the overpass itself. The Idaho Transportation will be funding the actual bridge overpass. We are working with the City of Meridian on finalizing the water and sewer plans, as well as the landscaping plans and some of the aesthetic and sculpture features that the city is planning to incorporate Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting. January 13,2026 Page 4 of 23 with the project. Construction is -- we are looking to put it out to bid late February and into March and, then, start construction this summer. We are targeting June for NTP of construction. That will go on throughout the calendar year 2027 most likely. We are still finalizing some of those details right now. But we are currently on track to get it out to bid and get it built this summer -- or starting this summer. And with that I will stand for any questions. Simison: Thank you, Brian. Council, Commissioners, any questions? Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: Just a follow up. Councilman Cavener couldn't be here this evening and needed to follow up on an area of concern of his, which was having to do with the philosophy and vision for where you guys saw Black Cat Road and I know you just talked about how the railroad crossing would be -- Simison: John, is your mic on? Overton: It is on. Simison: Okay. Overton: It is. The railroad crossing is part of that 675,000. To what width is that going to be completed or is it going to be built to such a parameter that it's going to handle a three lane road, a five lane road? What are we looking at for what the vision of Black Cat Road is? McCarthy: This -- this project right here with this funding, it's -- it's to meet the current conditions of -- of the two lane roadway. If we were to look at making it a five lane road there is additional studies and requirements that we would have with Union Pacific Railroad that it would take a lot longer to get accomplished, it would cost a lot more money and it would -- there is a risk that it would potentially not happen if we looked at widening it at five lanes on this time frame that we are -- we are looking to accomplish it. So, with the funding that was available we were looking to just replace the existing crossing with the two lane roadway. Overton: Quick follow up. Simison: Councilman. Overton: I get that and I understand. I just wanted to make sure that we are all clear on that so we know what to tell people who ask us. So, again, going back to just the philosophy and your vision for Black Cat Road itself. Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting. January 13,2026 Page 5 of 23 McCarthy: The -- the ultimate plan for Black Cat roadway? I believe the ultimate plan is a five lane roadway. Yeah. I don't think we have a program currently for -- it is not currently in the program. A Voice: Madam Chair? Oh, I just want to add to Councilman Overton's point. And so, yeah, basically we -- we wanted to remedy the safety concerns that Councilman Cavener and -- and constituents have echoed to us, as well as to you all. So, that's like the immediate first step; right? Is to adjust the safety concerns and, then, go in later to remedy the bigger problems around traffic congestion. A Voice: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Do you want -- A Voice: Madam President. Simison: Yeah. I will let you guys -- we will both run our own meetings. How about that? A Voice: Thank you. Yeah. Just a couple of questions. And I think on the -- on the Black Cat Road and that railroad crossing, those are -- those are good questions and the question that came to my mind was is the improvement to the crossing that's being planned to be done immediately, will that be duplicated by -- or have to be torn out by the ultimate widening of that segment of Black Cat Road? Because we are -- even though it may not be on the program now, I -- I got to think that within the next ten years we are going to widen Black Cat Road to its five lane ultimate section and one thing that I would be -- it would -- it would bother me if we are going to be, then, tearing out and redoing what's being done right now. Is what's being done right now being done in a way that will be compatible with the ultimate plan for that roadway in that area or are we not necessarily thinking about that? McCarthy: The -- the length of the gates that would go down and the location for the foundations or the flashers would not meet the requirements for a five lane roadway -- A Voice: Right. A Voice: -- they would have to be set for the two lane. There should be some materials we could reuse, but, ultimately, a lot of the -- it would have to be rebuilt with the five lane roadway. McCarthy: The majority of that's going to have to be torn out in the next ten years or so and redone. A Voice: Whenever Black Cat is constructed. A Voice: -- along way from now. Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting. January 13,2026 Page 6 of 23 A Voice: Well, sure. Sure. Okay. Then if I may ask one more question. This is going off onto the Linder bridge project. One thing I have noticed on that -- that south approach to the bridge where the -- the work has been done. You showed the picture of that. I do know, as having been a bridge engineer in a past life, that a lot of times the desire is to build your bridge approach embankments and let them settle for a year or two if you can before you build the bridge. That way you -- you avoid settling issues after construction. That is say you let the construction -- you let the settling happen before the major construction is done. It looks like we haven't done that there. Is there a particular reason why we didn't go ahead and build 20 or 30 foot embankments and let that settle for a while and, then, scrape it off and cut it to grade later? McCarthy: With this initial contract we -- we didn't want to get into any of the structural aspects of the bridge. That will all be done under the prime contract. Regarding the compaction and the -- I mean it will all be done per Idaho Transportation Department specifications. I don't have the specifics on the -- the duration and, you know, the compaction needs on it, but it was just determined not to do any of this structural elements with this initial phase. A Voice: Right. No, I -- I understand -- I understand that, but this would be just embankment -- you know, building extra embankment letting it -- letting some of the settlement take place ahead of time is often a savings, because, then, you don't deal with settlement problems as much after the structure is built and I was just wondering if we had a particular reason not to go that approach. McCarthy: I -- I don't have a specific reason, so -- A Voice: Okay. All right. Good. Thank you. Whitlock: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Whitlock. Whitlock: Just a quick question. Can you bring me up to speed on chip sealing? You said Zone 7 is the priority for this year. How much in Zone 7? All of the yellow will be chip sealed or most of it? And -- and tell me the process, because last year all night, every night, people were out filling cracks and potholes and -- and getting ready I assume for the chip sealing. So, it's -- it's more than just chip sealing this year; is that correct? McCarthy: I am not the expert on the chip seal, but thank you, Tom. Otte: Mr. Mayor, Madam President, Councilman Whitlock, I almost said to Commissioner. Sorry about that. Whitlock: I have been called worse. Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting. January 13,2026 Page 7 of 23 Otte: So, what we are doing is we have selected roads that are -- a selection of roads within it. It's not going to be every road. It's not going to be 50 percent of the roads or -- or 75 percent. It's roads that need it and meet the criteria to be chip sealed this year. So, I can't tell you which -- each specific road right now. I don't have that right off the top of my head. But what we are doing is we are filling every crack in the roadway. We are going through and doing a pavement pre-treatment everywhere within pavement maintenance in Zone 7 right now. We are about 56 percent of the way through. We actually measure the miles that are covered every single day. So, I can tell you today very confidently we are about 56 percent of the way through. So, we will be out throughout the district with some kind of pavement maintenance treatment. At the very least crack seal and chip seal will happen on selected roadways that are meeting our current ship seal criteria. A Voice: Madam Chair? Gold: (Inaudible) A Voice: Tom, you might as well also explain -- I don't want to assume, you know, but we actually updated our chip sealing process to not just fill in the cracks, but to evaluate other aspects of the road condition. So, Tom, would you mind sharing a little bit more around like that evaluation before we get into the physical act of chip sealing and some of the other things that we are looking for? Otte: Be happy to, Mr. Mayor, Madam President. Councilman Whitlock. So, we actually have an entire process now where we go through, we will evaluate the condition or the pavement, the PCI, the pavement condition index. How is the road doing? What previous treatments have been done to the road. So, when was it chip sealed last? When has it had major repairs done? What's the traffic that road's taking and so which -- which pre-treatment is correct for that road. In some cases it will just be that crack seal. There are other methods we have that are not chip seal. We could -- a road could be past its usable life where we are letting it kind of fizzle out, because we are going to be doing mill and overlay. There are lots of different things that we could do. So, chip seal is not the end all be all of pavement maintenance, it's just a big piece in our quiver of all the different pavement condition -- or pavement conditions -- pavement maintenance pieces that we can do to improve the road surface. Simison: Sorry. I will bring Brian back up. Good to see you, though, Tom. Otte: Good to see. Simison: Maybe two other things if you wouldn't mind touching on real quick, because I have met with Director Head earlier this week. Maybe an update on the row acquisition, how that's beginning for the next phase of Linder that was talked about with the Council beyond the Linder overpass. Just a brief update on -- on plans for that and, then, also for those that haven't maybe seen the -- what is ACHD doing to reduce traffic problems in the local neighborhoods as construction projects are happening for those that maybe Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting. January 13,2026 Page 8 of 23 haven't been -- seen that, just so they -- if they hear comments from the public, so they can respond to those. McCarthy: Yeah. Absolutely. So, I think you are referencing Linder from Pine to Ustick is that -- Simison: Yes. McCarthy: The -- we -- we have an adopted concept for Linder from Pine to Ustick that had property acquisitions on full buyouts. I don't remember the exact number, but it was in the low thirties. The dollar value tied to that is more than we can accomplish in one year, so what we -- what we are doing is each year -- and this year there is two million dollars in the budget for right-of-way acquisitions. We are reaching out to the property owners that are along the corridor that are full acquisitions and we are just trying to gauge their interest, which property owners are interested in selling their house right now and those are the ones that we are going to work with this year to move forward with purchasing the property. So, we have sent a letter out to all those property owners and we received responses from a few of them and we were talking with some of those -- or starting to talk with them about the buyouts. Simison: And I think for Council, once those buyouts occur the -- the homes will likely not be kept in that place, they won't be doing rentals through that time frame, so you may start to see homes come down along that corridor. That's just your indication that, you know, that process is moving forward and it will continue over the next several years. McCarthy: Yeah. And that's a discussion we would like to continue with the city on, what is the best use of those properties and that land once they -- they are acquired now in the short term, but also the long term. Simison: So, more to come on that. Perfect. Taylor: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Taylor. Taylor: Quick question. A little bit on that. As that process happens and properties are sold and maybe torn down, how does that sort of impact the other discussions with other property owners with -- does that decrease their value? I mean what's your experience been with how that goes? Because I would assume at some point property owners are going to be either concerned about -- there is a couple of empty lots, they have torn them down, what's the value to my home? Just trying to get a sense what to expect from some of our constituents who might have some questions there. McCarthy: Yeah. Thank you, Madam -- Mr. Mayor, Madam President, Council Member Taylor. First of all, we don't normally go -- we -- we don't buy out whole rows of houses Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting. January 13,2026 Page 9 of 23 that regularly. So, we -- I don't know that we can say that we have a huge amount of experience in terms of what's the impact there. We find that by going through the process and -- and demolishing them as we buy them at -- at a minimum it allows the property to -- to stay in at least we -- it's easier to maintain, keeps it in a better place in in the interim. Ultimately we do have that adopted concept. So, I think all the properties along there have a good idea of what's coming and this is just -- this is our opportunity to -- for those who see that coming and go I'm ready to go now, they have the opportunity to choose to go. Regarding your second question, during -- during construction what we are doing for concerns about cut-through traffic and -- and concerns of the neighborhoods, we are -- we are taking a proactive approach ahead of construction and in our design plans, looking at ways where if we have an intersection closure or a road closure, what cut-through -- cut-through traffic might occur to avoid the closure, you know, through neighborhoods and residential areas and we are targeting those roadways to put -- put down temporary speed humps and/or stop signs and temporary traffic calming elements to try and get ahead of the anticipated cut -- cut- through traffic and we are also monitoring that during construction and making adjustments and -- and tweaks to it as needed during construction, you know, on the current traffic patterns and -- and where people might be driving through. Simison: So, just in case you haven't seen it or next time you have a road -- Councilman Overton, do you have a question? Overton: Yes. So, a follow up on that. I -- you did that on Sawtail Creek with -- you put several more stop signs and temporary speed bumps when Eagle Road was being rebuilt between Amity and Lake Hazel and at first I -- I met with several people that live on that street and they were kind of furious about what was happening, but, ultimately, I believe they understood and they were quite happy with the end result. But now that Eagle is being completed what's your timeline when you go back in and grind off those speed bumps and get rid of those stop signs that weren't there before that construction? McCarthy: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Madam President, Commission -- Council Member Overton. As soon as the construction is complete we will go in and remove the stop signs. The -- the speed cushions -- the speed bumps that are there, we are going to do direct outreach to the neighborhood and see do they want them to come out. We have built some infrastructure in place and -- and we are going to ask them and let them have the decision. Since it's already there they may like it, they may not like it, but the stop signs being a traffic control device, we want to make sure that those come out if they are not warranted. Gold: Commissioner Goldthorpe. Goldthorpe: One other part to this discussion is that at the initial point that cut-through traffic starts to become a problem, at least what I have noticed in a couple of -- of areas, one of them in Meridian where you are referring to a speeding and -- and that was why we put this stuff down and there might be a -- a component here that law enforcement can help with when it comes right down to it and we didn't have that cooperation in my Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting. January 13,2026 Page 10 of 23 opinion only in Boise when we had our Maple Grove project we have over there off of Eagle. And having that help -- let me tell you it makes a lot of difference to -- if someone's going to pay a hundred bucks to go 40 in a 20 zone. They need to feel that pain. Thanks. A Voice: Yeah. Madam President, Mr. Mayor, I just wanted to share two experiences in my one year tenure here of dealing with that particular issue. One was a -- I think it was the Pierce -- it wasn't a project I was familiar with. I think it was in President Gold's district. We actually had someone come to our meeting and wait until the end to compliment ACHD on their work of dealing with the cut-through traffic measures through their neighborhood. You don't see that very often. So, that was -- that was nice to hear. And, then, I had an issue in my district that wasn't an ACHD project, but it was a utility project or something going on Boise Avenue and whatever that permit holder had planned did not work. BPD was involved. I was getting calls from neighbors. And so in that case I just called the director -- I don't know who you should call if you are not a commissioner to get an inspector out there and deal with it. I think we -- there was an issue on Overland, too, a similar -- signs were confusing -- something. I would immediately not wait and just call whoever -- may be Tom or whoever the right person is to send an inspector out, because some of these things you need to deal with right away. So, anyway, that's always an available option should things, for whatever reason, go awry. Simison: Any additional comments or questions on this item? All right. Thank you very much, Brian. McCarthy: Thank you. 2. Locust Grove & Meridian Roads Preferred Route Evaluation Discussion. Simison: So, with that we will move on to Item 2, Locust Grove, Meridian Road, preferred route evaluation discussion and just for the Commission Members, this kind of just came up as we go through our five year plan as Council's trying to give you direction on which one is -- where they would like to see investment made and wanted to also get some feedback on the pros and cons from -- from SAS perspective, so they can help make that recommendation to you appropriately. So, with that thank you for being here, Tom. Laws: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Madam President, Members of the Commission and Council. For the record my name is Tom Laws and I'm the planning manager with the Ada County Highway District and, like the Mayor mentioned, this conversation has been going on a little less than a year now between our staffs and it's been an interest of the Meridian Transportation Commission as well. So, I was asked to come today, present a little bit on the Locust Grove and Meridian trade-offs. When we are talking Meridian Road and Locust Grove we are largely referring to the section between Chinden Road and Ustick, but for the purposes of this conversation today I'm generally going to use Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting. January 13,2026 Page 11 of 23 the Interstate to the south and Chinden to the north as we look at some of the data points behind these two corridors. So, just at a high level, when we are talking Meridian Road, some of the features along this corridor, it has direct access through an interchange to 1-84 and also a connection to State Highway 69 to the south. It transverses downtown Meridian core, along with Main Street, and has several regional attractors, including Settlers Park more or less in the central section, Albertsons to the north and Winco to the south. With Locust Grove there is no direct access to the Interstate. However, there is an overpass that connects you to the southern portions of Meridian and beyond and adjacent regional attractors here include the Idaho State University Meridian campus, more or less to the south and, then, Fred Meyer more central. With both of these corridors, however, they are major north-south connections, not only for Meridian, but for the region and there is a variety of different schools along both corridors. When looking at current conditions most of the data here comes from our traffic team in recent traffic counts over the last year or two. I -- I broke this up largely looking from the south headed to north. So, on the top table we have Meridian Road and as you can see the section further to the south, 1-84 to Franklin Road, we have three lanes on Meridian, three lanes on Main Street and an average daily traffic of just over 50,000 vehicles. Speed limit here is 35 miles per hour and it's largely commercial land uses. As you head further north the two counts I pulled, Cherry to Ustick, and, then, one from Ustick to McMillan, we vary from five lanes down to two to three and the -- the volumes -- daily volumes start to decrease as well, 27,000 during that first segment and, then, as few as 16,000 as you head further north. Forty miles per hour in residential for both these segments as well. When looking at Locust Grove that southern portion is five lanes, but the average daily traffic is about half and -- and largely that's likely due to the lack of the interchange there. So, you are looking at roughly 23,000 counts with 45 -- or 40 miles per hour speed limit and that mixed residential commercial land uses and, then, similar pattern here as you head further north with Fairview to Ustick and Ustick to McMillan, we vary from three lanes to two, 20,000 to 15,000 daily trips and that 40 miles per hour in residential land uses. Looking at current efforts on both of these corridors directly from our ACHD adopted 2026-2030 five year plan, there are two active efforts. Both of these are on Locust Grove. The first being a concept study that we kicked off last year between Fairview and Ustick. We aim to wrap up that concept this year or early next fiscal year, with design kicking off 2028 to 2029 and land acquisition in the 2030 -- 26-2030 plan to -- to start in 2030. As a reminder, this was the City of Meridian's number two priority in last year's priority list that you provided to us and, then, the second effort -- this is really tied to the larger Fairview effort, but I wanted to throw it in here as the major intersection with Locust Grove where we have completed the design in 2023, wrapped up right of way or land use acquisition last year and are moving toward construction in 2028 and this project was the number three priority from the city last year. Looking up to the future with our next formally adopted ACHD plan, the 2025-2045 CIP, I know most of you are familiar with this. Our Chief of Operations and Infrastructure, Justin Lucas, came and presented in the fall, but with this plan, just to kind of refresh your memory, it was adopted formally by our Commission in December of last year, 2025, and with the CIP it's -- it's a very technical document, took over two years to complete, and really relies on the Idaho Development Impact Fee Act in terms of key things that we have to look at. Specifically one item that Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting. January 13,2026 Page 12 of 23 we relied on was the COMPASS regional travel demand model for that. So, when we look at the region's growth, employment factors, job factors and housing, what comes up out of that through this adopted plan is two Meridian Road corridors were identified, the Ustick to McMillan corridor or section, which had a estimated build out year through that modeling exercise of somewhere between 2026 and 2030. So, this is the really preferred range or recommended range from that data. Proposed improvements include reconstruction and widening. It was determined that this was impact fee eligible and the project cost came in just about eight million dollars. The next segment to the north, McMillan to Chinden, had an estimated year of 2041 to 2045. Once again that reconstruction widening -- it is impact fee eligible and just under ten million for the project cost. When we look at Locust Grove there is a few differences here. So, that first segment, Fairview to Ustick, which, as I mentioned, we have an active concept study going on, we had a estimated build out year of 2031 to 2035. Reconstruction widening again. But the biggest difference is it -- it was determined that this was an existing deficiency. So, the -- the level of traffic -- level of service for this section is already failing today, so it is not impact fee eligible. It would have to come from General Fund dollars or other sources and in this case the project cost was just under 11 million dollars. Similarly, the next section to the north, Ustick to McMillan, was found to be that outer date for the build year 2041 to '45. Was not impact fee eligible and had a project cost of just under six million. That last column I haven't mentioned yet, but it's the corridor preservation only and so what that means is projects that are identified in that adopted CIP that do not have funding identified for design and construction, the strategy and the recommendation is just to focus on the right-of-way acquisition when it becomes available through existing development. So -- or upcoming development. So, both with that Ustick-McMillan section and the McMillan to Chinden, the -- the out years were that 2041 to '45. However, there was no construction or design identified. So, just that right-of-way preservation. And, I apologize, that was a lot of information there, but - - so that being said, when ACHD staff looks and compares these two based on our adopted documents, we would recommend Meridian Road being the -- the preferred prioritization and really the main items that I covered so far. So, the direct access to 84 and downtown Meridian as compared to Locust Grove. The vehicle volume -- volumes, especially towards the south, are almost double that of Locust Grove. The segments per the COMPASS travel demand model show a higher need for Meridian and, then, as I -- as I mentioned, Locust Grove -- several segments are not impact fee eligible and are only identified as corridor preservation where Meridian does not and that concludes my presentation. I'm happy to stand for any questions. Simison: Thank you, Tom. Council, Commission, questions? Goldthorpe: Tom, this is kind of a pop quiz, because when I saw this item on our agenda I was giving it a lot of thought, utilizing the concept of if we build it they will come and wondering that if Meridian Road is prioritized what that will do to downtown, because it's pretty backed up here a lot of the time and if -- if it comes, because everything is built out, you know, there is some parts of this road that you -- you can't widen. So, it -- and, yet, if Locust Grove were built out and people came there, which is Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting. January 13,2026 Page 13 of 23 what I believe would happen, you would probably have a little less impact to your downtown. Just my thought. Thanks. Taylor: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Taylor. Taylor: Thank you for this. This was -- I really appreciate sort of the -- all the detail. I live on Meridian Road just clear -- by Ustick and travel north quite a bit and it's interesting you have a lot of flow and, then, all of a sudden you hit Settlers Park in it -- you know, there is not much there and it's been kind of problematic, especially in the evening. Kind of curious if you would have any data or comments about once Linder Road overpass is done and, then, that becomes more of a -- a through way, is that going to affect any of the traffic counts would you expect on -- on Meridian Road? Does that have any sort of determination or how it would maybe change some thinking when that's completed or is that not really relevant to what you have done? Laws: Mr. Mayor, Madam President, Council Member, great question and I think it ties a little bit into Commissioner Goldthorpe's comments as well. Through the CIP, as I mentioned, we -- we rely heavily on that COMPASS travel demand model and what that focuses on and it incorporates heavily through the COMPASS Demographic Advisory Group, is our -- our city's comprehensive plans, what's the -- the vision for the future really is for these corridors that are -- are -- are land uses and so through Communities in Motion, through that demographic work, it does take into account what are the city's visions for those areas going out to 2040-2045 and, then, we are able to take that and incorporate it through that model, whether we are talking Black Cat, Linder, the -- the model does account for things like that and one of the best examples is Highway 16 and how is that going to take trips off of Black Cat, for example, how is Linder going to change once the overpass is in and so we -- we know that the model -- it accounts for that, it's -- it's not perfect by any means, but the nice thing is it's -- it's updated so regularly that we are constantly able to input the best information we have and so those assumptions have been made with these. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Thank you. Yeah. I share an interest in this as well just based on, you know, I cover District 2 and so Meridian Road -- it runs through my district on the northern end. I couldn't agree more. I think what we have been struggling with as a Council is we -- we have been trying to prioritize -- and even like with our Transportation Commission, for a long time they have been recommending corridors to improve; right? With the thought being we improve a whole corridor, then, it actually moves the needle in terms of getting people where they need to go. I think the biggest thing that we are facing in that north part of Meridian is just huge bottlenecking on -- not only on Meridian Road, but Locust Grove as well. I mean it's a huge issue. I'm excited to see that this segment Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting. January 13,2026 Page 14 of 23 is a focus of Meridian Road, basically from Ustick to McMillan. That is a horrible bottleneck. But, then, right at the end of that bottleneck you have Heritage Middle School. So, what -- what I'm kind of struggling with is like what is the right balance long term of widening and -- and prioritizing these roadways, but, then, with a lot of regard for safety, which I think needs to be a huge element as we think through this and as you guys are formulating your plans, whether it's for Locust Grove or whether it's for Meridian Road, but, ultimately, we need some kind of a connection to Chinden that's getting people where they need to go on an expedited basis. We are hoping Linder Road helps solve the problem, but when it comes to road widening and balancing that with safety elements with a school -- with middle schoolers, like how do you guys think about that? Laws: Mr. Mayor, Madam President, Council Member, great -- great question and I think the Usick corridor probably provides the best example for that and -- and tying into Brian's presentation previously in a very short time frame -- in a couple years we are going to have Ustick more or less complete within Ada county and as you traverse from the eastern side in the city of Boise out to Star Road, Ten Mile and so forth in Meridian, you can see how ACHD, the -- the nation has really evolved over time in terms of safety and -- and the -- the best example of that is with multi-use pathways and so historically the best practice nationally and what you see further to the -- to the east on Ustick are on-street bike facilities, attached sidewalks and over the past few years with direction from the Commission we have really moved away from that on our major arterial roads and are now focused on detached multi-use pathways. You see them on several segments of recently completed Eagle Road, Linder, Ten Mile, for example. But that's -- that's probably going to be the -- the biggest difference maker, especially by Heritage and -- and the other schools along the corridor is for those, you know, most vulnerable users they will have a detached facility that they will be able to use to get to the grocery store, to get to the school and so forth. A Voice: Having deja vu, because I had a similar issue -- I don't know -- 14 years ago or more when I was working for a city to the east and they were struggling with Overland Road. Should be seven lanes. I mean the big -- big numbers and one thing I suggested to the consultant is to -- that we needed to better understand who is on the road. Were they longer trips or were they shorter trips? Because if they were the shorter trips within -- versus coming from Canyon county, for example, and I think they did a select link analysis to try to tease out who is traveling on the road and why, so that if there was shorter trips, the next evaluation was to look at can we build the network -- the collectors and things to more efficiently use the capacity on the arterial. So, I don't know this area as well, but I would probably look if there was a way to -- to get a better understanding of who is on these arterials and can they be offloaded to mid mile collectors or a denser network. So, just a thought. That was the one thing I know and part of Overland Road back then even was pretty well developed, you know, in the county even, so -- but where there were opportunities to -- to get more collectors and get -- get people off of the arterial if they were just going to Fred Meyer or wherever, that was kind of the next level of the analysis and I think that was -- the select link analysis helped with that evaluation. So, just a thought. Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting. January 13,2026 Page 15 of 23 Laws: Mr. Mayor, Madam President, Council Member Strader, it -- you know, what -- while we are talking going down the road getting across them is always a challenge and the wider you build those roads we recognize that and so that's why also through this process ACHD's continued -- as we have evolved we have continued to develop more two stage crossings where you only have to cross two lanes at a time versus a three lane crossing you generally would go all the way and so we try and find ways to incorporate more of that into the -- into the design of our projects. We have good partnership with the City of Meridian in terms of implementing vertical elements in our projects, whether it be trees or landscaping or other things that can calm traffic in and around those areas and we look for ways to incorporate those things into our designs as well and so we -- you know, on both of these roads you really have school -- you do have schools and Meridian has done a great job of having a lot of the schools turn more inward to the neighborhoods and not on those arterial roadways, but where you do have that we try and incorporate some of those other features that would -- would help with that. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: So, I will say this very delicately. Sometimes we are Team Meridian Road. Sometimes we are Team Locust Grove. And we don't always agree and I -- I tend to learn more towards Team Locust Grove, because when I look at the schools on Meridian Road I see that when we are talking they are more short trips, but when I see an Idaho State University campus built over the next 30 years it's going to draw across this valley, I see long trips and I see a lot more traffic coming in. When I see some of the projects that we have approved on Locust Grove I see a lot more trips and I -- I know what the figures look like now, but we are trying again to look down the road to what that's going to be and what's going to be the best solution and I can't help but remember the location of the police department is right off Locust Grove and we have a fire station sitting right on Locust Grove and we need to remember when we look at where we put our priority corridors we cannot forget public safety and how quick they need to be able to get out and respond to things. So, it's -- to me it's not a matter of do we do one or the other, this is a matter of we need them both and how do we actually come to that conclusion of which one gets done first and for what reasons and how we make that determination. But I love the data. It just doesn't -- that's not the crystal ball looking into the future telling me what that's going to be. Simison: And I don't know if this is piggybacking. I'm going to make a statement, ask a question and try to get direction for the Council on this topic as we move into it, because I -- I learned something that I never -- apparently if I have heard this before I didn't know it. I didn't know that widening the road wasn't eligible for impact fees and so I'm like, well, how -- how do you make sure a road is eligible for impact fees or if you don't do something does it -- can it not be eligible for impact fees in the future or is -- is that already decided for every road in the county right now? I don't know the answer to that question, but I'm going to lay this into -- the Commission just recently made a Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting. January 13,2026 Page 16 of 23 decision on increasing your impact fees, which I assume means that your plan is going to grow as those come in, because you are going to have more capability to add in projects. Should this council be looking at whether a project is impact fee eligible or not as a deciding factor or as a prioritization -- or as a factor to consider during prioritization, because it may or may not have a greater likelihood of being funded compared to something that would come from a general funding source. Yeah. I was going to tell you, Brian, that you may want to come back up and -- and we didn't talk about this in our conversation, but it's led me to that question. When I look at that thing and it says, well, Locust Grove, we are going to have to -- because that's just for the right-of-way acquisition that you have dollars and they are not others and I assume the rest of it would be General Fund as well. So, how does that -- how do you see that playing in or should the Council consider that when looking at prioritization of projects to ACHD? Laws: Mr. Mayor, Madam President, Council Commission, this is definitely the challenge we face. This is why a five year plan, the CIP, is -- is -- is difficult. A project becomes not impact fee eligible when the traffic on it becomes so much from existing traffic that it overwhelms the capacity and so when -- when you don't widen a project fast -- I guess you could say fast enough you end up in a place where you -- it becomes not impact fee eligible. So, whether or not you -- you need to get into that complexity in -- in -- in weighing things out, I think a lot of your conversation today is -- and -- and some of the things -- you know, Council Member Overton and Council Member Strader have brought up is, you know, you also have to look at what you see the vision of your community being. You have schools, how do you support those? You have public service, how do you support those? Ultimately we agree, our plans show that both of those roads need widened. It's just a question of what comes first and -- and really that -- some of those things we can't necessarily answer for you. What we can say is from our projections one -- Meridian Road looks to have the greatest benefit, but, ultimately, we -- this is why we -- we -- we look to you in terms of your vision and what you want your community to look like in the near term. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Yeah. So, one like question I had that -- you kind of answered I think through the -- kind of timing of these various segments of each corridor, but like which corridor would be widened first if we -- like all the way from the Interstate to Chinden let's say. Like is it obvious to you that -- like because of the study that's underway already with Locust Grove -- and that's something I noticed in your own five year prioritization and some of our priorities is there is a lot happening on that segment right now with the study, it just doesn't go all the way north and so like a question I had was if we prioritize Locust Grove does that mean we are going to get a complete corridor faster or is there some reason that you think -- I mean maybe it's the impact fee piece, which also is news to me. Like if we prioritize that instead, would we be able to get that segment done faster? I think -- I'm just trying to understand which -- if we took one of those two paths -- like at the end of the day which path would get us a complete corridor from -- Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting. January 13,2026 Page 17 of 23 from, you know, somewhere around the Interstate to like Chinden I think would be a question I would have. Laws: Mr. Mayor, Madam President, Council Member Strader, well, you -- you currently have two of those miles already widened along Meridian Road. So, you have two miles left on -- on Meridian Road, whereas on -- on Locust Grove you have three. Some of the conversation in the concept today is -- is it going to be a three lane road? Is it going to be a four lane road or a five lane road. It's already a three lane road today with built out sidewalks and bike facilities. The question is is that the vision that you have for your city or do you want it to be widened? Do you want it -- do you want to focus on completing corridors that are not -- don't have all those facilities first? That would be Meridian Road versus where Locust Grove already has a lot of those facilities and at least in that one section there. So, it's -- it -- it really is a question -- for a long time the conversation was for -- between Locust Grove and Meridian that those -- those two miles between Ustick and Chinden would be three lane and that was the plan, because of the schools, because of all these other things. But I think as the community has grown some of that perspective has changed and -- and the Commission accepted that and it recognized that we would preserve for an ultimate build out of five lanes, but what that looks like, you know, we -- we -- we could -- what I would recommend in terms of your priorities is to pick one and this -- and to prioritize that one and that will get one of them done faster. If you try and do both at the same time you are not going to get a complete corridor faster and so while Locust Grove is -- is in that study phase -- part of the reason it doesn't have construction dollars today is because we don't know what it's going to be and whether or not we need to prioritize those funds and so we are -- as we work through that concept and work with the -- the -- the city in terms of that vision, we will have a little bit better idea of whether or not -- what that project is going to be and is it going to be wider or is it going to stay as it is and what the next step would be there, too. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: I appreciate that. I -- I think for us we certainly need to have more conversations on our end. You know, I -- I think Councilman Overton -- well, Council President Overton did a nice job of -- of kind of explaining there are other elements that we consider as well, like Fire response times and things that are other pain points in the city that we have to kind of balance out. I -- I personally just get nervous about planning a build out to like a five lane road where we directly have a middle school and a lot of children crossing that road without a really strong sense of how we would solve for safety issues. Up until you -- when -- you know, on that road between kind of Settlers Park and until you get up to McMillan, the bottlenecking, though, is completely unsustainable. So, it's -- it -- it -- it really is going to be a tough one for us to -- to try to puzzle through. But based on your work plan today, like based on where everything is planned out today, like which segment would be completed first theoretically? That would be my question. Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting. January 13,2026 Page 18 of 23 Laws: Okay. President Gold, Mr. Mayor, Council Member Strader, per our five year plan neither of them are -- are set to be built out in -- in the next five years and per our CIP that's what Tom was presenting and -- and Meridian would come first. Strader: Okay. Laws: But, ultimately, the -- and -- and if I may, the -- our CIP is a projection of need. It's not necessarily a projection of -- of -- of when we would build those things and we look at your priorities, as well as what's -- what's happening to really determine that. So, I know we -- we are all kind of standing here looking at each other going so which one and I know those are hard conversations and -- and -- and we -- we know that there is a lot to weigh out in that and we appreciate your -- your seriousness. Ultimately, the City of Meridian is extremely diligent in how it reviews its priorities and -- and we appreciate the -- the complex list that you give us that -- that really emphasizes what needs to get done and -- and we like to try and make those things happen, so -- Strader: Thanks. Goldthorpe: Don't go anywhere, Brian. Since it came as a surprise to probably more than just two about Locust Grove not being impact fee eligible and -- and you describe that as being a function of -- of the traffic, the level of service, if Meridian Road is built out first and a sufficient number of cars don't use Locust Grove Road as a result, can that become impact fee eligible again? Laws: Mr. Mayor, Madam President, Commissioner Goldthorpe, theoretically, yes, in -- in practice you rarely see it. You rarely see enough traffic shift, just because you have a growing community at the same time. A Voice: Yeah. One metric we haven't talked about -- and maybe it's because my background as a planner I'm always less concerned about number of lanes and all these things, but the experience of the driver and what's the travel time down the corridor and how is that going to change over time. Is that a metric that we can help provide to that decision process. You know, if we focus on this one, then, it will -- we will have a travel time, whatever that is, so many minutes, but if we ignore this one how is that going to impact the travel time. I took a note and I put it asterisk, Council President Overton, about the emergency response time and I think that would be a good thing to understand better is the -- is the travel time comparison if you do one versus the other. You know, what does -- what does that look like and is the congestion on Meridian near this -- is that acceptable, you know. I don't -- I know what a bottleneck is, but I'm more curious on how many minutes is that, you know, and is that a good -- a trade-off for the different investments. So, just a thought. Simison: Any further questions or comments on this item? Okay. I guess thanks for the information and Council will take it under advisement and just for -- we did get a letter from ACHD regarding the time frame for the -- our five year work plan. We were Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting. January 13,2026 Page 19 of 23 granted a few extra weeks to run through our process to give our Transportation Commission, as well as Council, a couple of opportunities. So, appreciate the latitude and flexibility on that one to help us weigh these topics, so -- 3. Upcoming Throughputs Discussion Simison: With that, Mr. Hood, we will turn this over to you for upcoming throughputs -- will say information more than discussion, since we are at the end and this is meant to let everyone get on the same page. Hood: That's right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, President Gold, Commission Members, Council Members. My name is Caleb Hood. I'm the deputy director here for the City of Meridian in the Community Development Department. I have got two projects I want to just provide you a pretty brief update on that the city is involved with, some studies and some evaluations of some of the roadways and neighborhoods in -- in the city. More to come as the Mayor just alluded to probably in the coming months, but wanted to -- again, if you hadn't heard about these give you an idea that we are working on them and we will probably be having more discussions on both these projects here again in the coming days. So, the first one I wanted to touch on is 3rd Street. East 3rd Street. The connection is not new. The city and ACHD have been talking about East 3rd Street and that alignment for 20 plus years now. In 2009 we both adopted as agencies an alignment that you can kind of see on the screen there. It's the candy cane designation of -- of 3rd Street -- today 2 1/2 Street kind of serves as 3rd Street, because 3rd Street. dead ends, if you will, into the Cole Valley play -- ball fields and so this -- this was evaluated and studied in 2008, 2009 and -- and right now on the books anyways that is the alignment that has been discussed and -- and, again, is endorsed by both of our -- our agencies. The purpose of the study in the corridor was and remains the creation of a collector level street connection that parallels Main-Meridian, giving another north- south connection into and out of downtown. Doing so is intended to reduce the traffic pressures on the couplet, allow downtown residents to improve route directness, foster a quieter and calmer street for bicyclists and pedestrians to use. That 2008 study, 2009 study was conducted in conjunction with the timing of the Meridian split corridor. So, as we were figuring out what Main-Meridian looked like and some -- some one-way couplets and things like that, this was a companion study that was evaluated at that time. Both ACHD and the city, again, a benefit from understanding what this looks like, some of the rationale for why the alignment, again, that you see here on the screen and -- that was chosen was the separation or the -- the signal spacing from Main Street to 2 1/2 Street was too close, so 3rd Street got you just a little bit further away. So, under the premise of having a -- a signalized intersection on Fairview at Meridian, at Main and, then, at whatever this 3rd Street alignment where it intersects Fairview could also have -- occur in the future. So, I think that was some of the rationale for why, again, this current alignment was chosen back in the day. Excuse me. Several conditions and assumptions present in the 2008 study have changed and as part of the update to the downtown master plan, the urban renewal agency for the city hired a consultant to reevaluate this study essentially and even look a little bit closer at actually using 2 1/2 Street at Fairview. That was dismissed fairly early on in that study, again, because that Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting. January 13,2026 Page 20 of 23 intersection got too close to Main Street and -- and didn't think you could have another signal that -- in that close proximity. So, they are exploring previously unexamined alignments that I just mentioned and updating the status of the 2008 conditions and assumptions, including some cost estimates of what that would look like for right of way and construction and incorporating those findings and recommendations into a white paper for the city and, then, again, eventually ACHD to also reconsider. I do think there has been some conversations by that consultant with some folks at ACHD and, obviously, they have talked to the City Council about this a couple of times now, so, again, no decisions have been made. We are still fact finding and -- and gathering information. I will mention this came up a little bit. Improvements to East 3rd are included in ACHD's five year plan right now between Carlton and Franklin. So, three quarters of this corridor is currently in the ACHD five year plan for 20 -- design in 2028 and construction in 2030. Franklin, at Carlton, was recently removed, I think some -- to some degree because of all these questions that still remain there. So, the finishing of this corridor is no longer in the five year plan. So, this is the city's number two priority on what was previously called community programs projects. I understand that's going to be called safety and compliance here. But this is our number two, a high priority project in our downtown that we really do want to kind of bring to conclusion. So, that's the -- the brief update. Some notes on that. A lot of history there. So, hopefully, I covered it and you get the gist of-- of the corridor and the alignment study. Simison: Maybe just add -- I think one of the biggest changes was the free flowing right went away, because that free flowing right basically almost came into 2 1/2 Street at the time and now that has ended. It is dead end. So, it's really the distance between 2 1/2 is no different than Meridian and Main as it currently exists, just for some -- I wasn't here, but that's I think one of the big differences, but -- okay. And more to come in -- in conversations on that one. So, did you want to move on to the second one? Hood: So, the second one -- and, again, this one has some pretty rich history as well. We, in fact, will reach out to your traffic department it seems like probably about every other year to ask for some traffic calming or to evaluate in the Woodbridge Subdivision some concerns for cut through and speeding through that neighborhood. Today there is only one way to get basically between Eagle and Locust Grove between 1-84 and Franklin Road and that is through the Woodbridge Subdivision. The first roughly quarter mile or so of that subdivision is a designated collector with no front-on housing, but, then, it splits kind of around some open space and are just local streets with front-on housing. So, again, this is kind of a long standing issue for the community. So, the city did kick off a -- excuse me -- a study that we are calling Stratford to Touchmark, which are two other roads that are in this general vicinity. Touchmark Way is basically right behind St. Luke's hospital off of Franklin and Eagle and Stratford is back and Waltman are back off of Meridian Road. So, it's a little over two miles of a study area and kind of zooming in Locust Grove almost being the -- the middle of that study area. It's a project focused on transportation improvements that enhance local connectivity and efficiency, enhance public services and support future economic development. This effort was actually supported for and called for in our -- our current Comprehensive Plan that was adopted in 2019. We made some changes to some land uses out here and we say we Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting. January 13,2026 Page 21 of 23 need some further evaluation of the roadway network to make those land uses really come to fruition. So, we are following up on that and -- and, again, looking at some of those opportunities that may exist. One of the other things -- and Councilman Overton mentioned this in some of his comments when we were talking about Locust Grove or Meridian or -- or Locust Grove or Locust Grove or Meridian, which one first, is Idaho State University. So, they do have a presence already on the joint campus with the West Ada School District and ICOM, but they are going through the process and -- and master planning for their -- a substantial campus here on Locust Grove, so that was another driving for between -- why looking at this area for transportation improvements and improving some of the existing network deficiencies if you want to call it that to make those through connections between Meridian and Eagle Road. So, those are probably the two biggest reasons to look at and -- and potentially improve access and connectivity in these areas with some known redevelopment coming and some potential on the horizon as well. I will just -- Tom was involved a little bit in this, but Edison's been great. He has been part of our stakeholder team that's working on this. Carl Anderson on my team is the project manager and he is here for any questions. I believe. He was here. There he is. So, Carl's working on that. The city did select Kittelson and Associates, along with Logan Simpson to help them look at some of the land use assumptions and, again, the economic impacts to some of the alternatives that are being evaluated. Kick -- we kicked this off on July 31 st. The project is broken up into tasks that include plan review and transportation system inventory, stakeholder outreach and concept development and a white paper. The project is currently wrapping up with the final concepts and white paper are currently being finalized in preparation to present the project findings to Council on January 27th. So, a couple weeks we should be back -- and Carl will be back presenting that to City Council. The project has identified three alternative alignments and with consideration being given to the impacts of land use, utility, existing conditions and feasibility, the city anticipates that the next steps will also include evaluating approach and work with ACHD to update the master street map. So, right now we don't have an additional collector in this general vicinity east of Locust Grove. So, we do envision that being an outcome and maybe some other changes to the master street map were needed. Potential to update land uses as needed on the city's comprehensive future land use map and maybe even some of the text of the comp plan as well and, then, there is potential for additional evaluation for specific areas and intersection treatments. I kind of mentioned some of these 90 degree curves that occur. Freeway Drive at Wells is not ideal either if we are going to have a -- a collector network through here. So, looking at some of those sharp curves and -- and how we can actually design and -- and eventually construct a roadway network that gets the traffic patterns we are hoping for. We don't have cost estimates, design drawings and -- or further utility work, but that's more -- some additional next steps depending on how this is received with Council and some of the direction we have given and, obviously, ACHD will be -- we need you to be partners and at the table as we further these conversations. So, that's, again, kind of a quick overview of that project as well, but I will sit or have Carl come up for any questions you may have on this one. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting. January 13,2026 Page 22 of 23 Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: Just a comment. And -- and really kind of a comment about both of these projects that Caleb's talked about. He did a fantastic job. But, unfortunately, ownership of some of these problems sits up here at the dais, because we identified 3rd Street over 20 years ago that we wanted 3rd Street to cut all the way through to Fairview, but we never preserved that corridor. So, over the period of time we allowed some developments to come in that pretty much handicap us going in and now we are moving new developments to put a roadway system in because we talked about it 20 years ago. So, it's why we are kind of relooking at 3rd Street to 2 1/2 as being our pathway through, because we have allowed a lot of stuff to come in. Now, move to the second one we are talking about. It was almost ten years ago I met with Justin Lucas talking about how we would do a roadway through -- a real roadway through this area that didn't go through a residential subdivision and at that time Justin said, well, ultimately, you got a signal at Central and you got a signal at St. Luke's Lane, it's how do we get there and that's kind of what we have been dealing with this whole time is we have the signals, connection between the two of them, but my fear is -- I don't want to be talking about this for 20 years and we continue to allow more developments to occur until we don't have a solution. So, what we want to do is start to preserve some of these preferred roadway areas in our city and work together to get a solution and not allow other developments to come in and totally destroy the vision for how we want to see these areas develop. Simison: Thank you. Any other questions, comments? Excellent. Well, much more to come on both those issues, so -- Gold: Mr. Mayor? I just want to say thanks so much for the opportunity for the joint meeting. We always appreciate getting a chance to hear from you all directly and to discuss these important issues going on in the city. Thank you. Simison: Well, we appreciate you coming here again, but we will be going to your new place next time we decide to get together. So, with -- with that do I have a motion? Overton: Mr. Mayor, I make a motion that we adjourn. Little Roberts: Second. Simison: Motion and second to adjourn. All in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it. We are adjourned. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Meridian City Council-ACHD Joint Meeting. January 13,2026 Page 23 of 23 MEETING ADJOURNED AT P.M. (AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) MAYOR ROBERT E. SIMISON 1-27-2026 ATTEST: CHRIS JOHNSON - CITY CLERK 1-27-2026