Ever Onward Podcast

Why Traffic Feels Different in Boise Now - Ryan Head, ACHD Executive Director | Ever Onward - Ep. 116

• Ahlquist. • Season 1 • Episode 116

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Today on the Ever Onward Podcast, Tommy Ahlquist and Garrett Lofton sit down with Ryan Head, Executive Director of the Ada County Highway District, to talk about why ACHD matters more than ever as the Treasure Valley continues to grow.

Ryan shares his journey as a Boise native who worked his way up through ACHD, from writing grants and managing long-range planning to now leading one of the most important public agencies in Ada County. The conversation covers the history of ACHD, why its structure is so unique, how road funding actually works, and what it takes to plan for growth years before the public ever sees pavement go in.

They also get into the biggest transportation issues facing the valley today, including impact fees, congestion, safety, Highway 16, Micron’s expansion, and the long-term planning needed to support future growth across Ada County. Ryan also explains why collaboration between cities, businesses, developers, and the public is critical if the Treasure Valley wants to stay ahead of growth instead of constantly reacting to it.

This is a valuable conversation for anyone who cares about the future of Boise, Ada County, and how we keep Idaho moving.

Episode Summary:

Ryan Head of ACHD joins Ever Onward to talk about Boise growth, traffic, road funding, safety, Micron, Highway 16, and the future of transportation in Ada County.

Keywords:

ACHD, Ada County Highway District, Ryan Head, Boise growth, Treasure Valley traffic, Boise roads, Idaho transportation, Micron Boise, Highway 16, Ada County development, infrastructure, Ever Onward Podcast

Chapter Markers:

00:00 Welcome and why ACHD matters

01:51 Ryan Head’s background and Boise roots

04:30 The history and purpose of ACHD

06:53 Road maintenance, quality, and chip seal

08:28 Growth, impact fees, and infrastructure planning

14:43 How ACHD prioritizes projects

18:56 Funding challenges and vehicle registration fees

23:51 ACHD’s relationship with cities

28:31 Safety, schools, and rapid-response improvements

33:03 Highway 16, Micron, and southern growth

38:53 Right-of-way preservation and future bypass planning

41:51 How the business community can help

43:53 Final thoughts and closing

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Welcome And Why ACHD Matters

SPEAKER_01

Today on the Ever Onward Podcast, we have Ryan Head, the executive director of the Ada County Highway District. Ryan is a Boise native and has been leading ACHD for the last two years. We're very excited to have him on with Garrett Lofton and myself to talk about Ada County Highway District, the growth, the pressures that are coming here in the Treasure Valley, and the plans for the future. Ryan, thanks for coming in. Thank you so much for having me. We really appreciate this. Uh Garrett and I are having a series of these and talking transportation. How do you talk transportation without talking about ACHD?

SPEAKER_02

Appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01

I want to start. Um you're pretty new to this position. And like a breath of fresh air, buddy. Do you do you realize this guy takes over? Well, first of all, the history of ACHD and the city of Boise is uh someone could write a book on this thing because it's not been It's not a straight line. It's not a straight line. And it's not been so I I I have my first kind of Boise City ACHD issue, and Ryan's the new director. And he's like, Well, I'll just I'll I'll meet at the city. And I'm like, Ryan, you'll go into the city with me and sit down and talk? And he's like, Yeah, what just what time's the meeting? And and honestly, before we started the meeting, I'm like, hey, and I embarrassed him because I'm like, hey, this is the first time in 25 years for me. We've got the director of ACHD sitting around the table with the planning director for Boise. Let's all just have a moment of silence. Yeah.

unknown

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01

And anyway, so so it's been great. Um, how long you've been uh the director now? It's been it's been two coming up on two years in May. Two years in May.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

Ryan Head Background And Approach

SPEAKER_01

Um, well, it's been it's been awesome. Tell us a little bit about you before we get going. Uh your your background, where you where'd you grew up, and how long how long you've been doing what you've been doing.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, this is this is my home. I've born and raised here in Boise, Idaho, at St. Luke's downtown. My wife as well, and all of my kids. So this is this is we're true Idahoans here uh and love this place. Went to Boise State, uh studied economics, uh somehow International Economics at Boise, Idaho, you know, it makes sense. Um and and then went into really focused on public finance and and wanted to uh just invest in our community, do something cool. And so just uh came came through the realm of uh transportation planning and came up the ranks at ACHD and and stepped into this role a few years ago. Uh, really with that focus on just uh building partnerships. Why not be at a meeting, right? It's how you get stuff done. You're sitting across the table from each other, you talk and you build those relationships, and then stuff happens.

SPEAKER_01

Well, and um how long you've been at ACHD? Tell us a little bit about the roles you've had and and you know how you you came in and took over for Bruce, who was there a long time.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, he was there 11 years. I came in uh back in 2010. I started writing grants for ACHD, getting federal money, um, and then moved into a supervisor role in the planning department, overseeing our five-year plan, uh, managing that and all aspects of that, right? There's you have to identify the projects and you have to have policies and things, and so uh leading a small team there. Uh a few about four years ago, stepped into a deputy director role overseeing development and technical services and engineering and environmental and uh our traffic services, so all paint signs, um, signals, all of that. And then had fun doing that. And uh Bruce stepped away and I said, maybe I can add some value here. So uh stepped into that opportunity. So for you, congrats. Oh, thank you so much. Still figuring that out.

SPEAKER_00

Well, hey, you you've you've been here since the beginning. This is home for you your entire life, so you've seen, you know, kind of the evolution of of the Treasure Valley and Ada County and so forth. So who who better of an expert than uh to than yourself?

SPEAKER_02

Oh well, thank you. And I think that in vet just that knowing this place, knowing it, letting it be your home makes you really care about it. Yeah. I still remember the six miles to eagle sign on State Street. Um definitely not there anymore.

Why ACHD Exists Since 1971

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, definitely not there anymore. Hey, talk about AC just ACD, you know, there's very few of these in the country. In fact, I think at one point it was the only county highway district, um, and it may have changed now, but but it it's it's a little unique that you have um a county as big as Ada, the largest county in our state, with one highway district that kind of governs the biggest county. Talk about the origins of ACHD and and how we got here and some of the benefits as you see it. I and you're gonna get into some of the uh economies of scale of maintenance and the kind of oversight. And you know, we we had ITD in here just now, and we're talking about just kind of some of the good things that come from master planning a county and how that's been, and then we'll talk about some of the challenges too. But but but start with the history and kind of some of the positives.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely. Um Ada County Highway District was uh voted in, uh uh created by the voters in 1971. Uh what you had was a a really weird system where the county got quite a bit of money and the cities got money, but the cities had to compete with fire and and sewer and all the that other stuff. And so the roads in the cities weren't that great, and the counties were really good. Um and so what uh the voters saw is they they saw a need to standardize that. Really, potholes is where we believe our crate uh we came from. Um and and so we we we take that seriously even today, the the need to make sure that our roads are well maintained. Um and so brought it together. Uh, yeah, really we believe we're one of one in the nation. Um, there may be a few others who have figured out that it's a really good model. Uh we we did some analysis not too long ago looking at what it would take to maintain the number of lane miles that we have in the county, which is over 5,500. This is Washington, D.C. and back, if not further, right? Um in in terms of the distance of uh and the amount of roads we have to maintain. Um, just what you would typically pay to maintain that many lane miles compared to what we pay, about$25 million in savings every single year for the taxpayers. Wow.

SPEAKER_01

Um you know if I I'd heard that number and talk a little bit about the quality of the streets too, because I there's a rating system. You're gonna know how to explain this, but there's a rating system of how how prepared they are and ready they are and remedied they are, and and you guys always lead the nation in that, right?

Maintenance Quality And Chip Seal

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, we we we we stand up tall in that because um yeah, you we have an independent assessment come in every few years, take a look at the roads and give it a rating. Uh, when you compare that against a lot of the jurisdictions, uh especially in the Pacific Northwest, that company looks a lot in this area in California. Uh we're we're right up there. We're we're we're up at the top because we have we have a really high quality program. Uh not everyone loves gypsy, but we uh it truly is the sunscreen that protects the uh the roads and keeps them in good condition because roads are impacted by by sun and rain and snow and just uh all those climate things that that affect them and it really um allows us to hold the roads together. Plus, we just have really, really good people who care and and are out there working really hard to uh to fill the holes to get things done really fast.

SPEAKER_00

You know, regarding that chip seal, you can tell for sure that they're not rollerbladers. So it's really hard to rollerblade on that chip seal.

SPEAKER_02

But yeah, I remember the first time my my road got chip sealed in front of my house. And as a kid, I'm like, man, it's it hurts to run across this with our with no shoes on, but it it it does a good job. So much does that add to the life? Um you know, if if you're constantly degrading your roads, it just pops it up each time. And so you can go 20 years without like a major rebuild where maybe it's more like seven. Wow. Wow. Um so significant. Yeah, it's significant. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Talk about um I I can't wait to get into some of the questions we're gonna ask you, the harder questions, which is growth has been tough, right? Yeah, and you think about um you just you just gave us a major whack with increasing our fees. Like it's crazy. Uh you know, it wasn't as bad on some things, and some things it's 10 times what the fees are. So uh you you you do have the ability to charge fees, develop um uh and you know there's this thing of growth pays for growth, right? So ACHD, the way it works, and I'll kind of explain it is um we we do a building. If it's a medical building, it's dollar per square foot per medical. If it's uh if it's drive-thru, it's this, if it's retail, if it's that, if it's industrial, it's that. The idea is that those fees all go into one pot and then pay for the growth or the impact fee that you have. So you most most projects require a traffic study, and then it goes through ACHD. You comment on all of our plans, every every building we do, you comment on the building and how it's impact, and then you assess an impact fee, and then that gets paid before you pull a building permit um on your building. Um and and you just had to do a major upgrade. I actually talked to a couple of your commissioners because we were very concerned, right? Because in the middle of you know, lots of constraints on growth right now, um it it still comes down to um you know how how do we afford how do people afford this? And and we had a lot of people calling us saying, hey, we already have supply chain issues and cost of construction is more higher is higher than it's ever been. Now you're gonna increase fees by you know, some of these were very significant. A lot of a lot of the retail fees went up a lot. Yeah. Um so um but but but as much as we complain sometimes, uh it it works pretty well, and it's a way of uh paying for the roads. And I think what I want you to talk about is you're you're you are planning out there five, ten, fifteen years. And what you're trying to do is get enough of those fees for Ada County roads, not ITD roads, that are going to be the next connections uh across the Southern Valley or across the north as we grow. So that's a setup, but talk a little bit about your fee structure and how you're planning for the future and planning on paying for things.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, Ada County Highway District has one of the benefits of our structure is we have the ability to um we have a pretty diverse funding mechanism. We have some property taxes that um we're able to collect, we have vehicle registration fees, we have um gas taxes, we have um impact fees. Really, there's that diversity really helps us ride through a lot of storms. And uh one of the things, you know, Tommy mentioned kind of that development side that's really beneficial is having one voice looking at all the roads. So there's no like jurisdictional issues. You you you have a clear system that works, standard is standardized, people can know what to expect, and we can keep that that big picture in mind all the time. Our impact fee program, yeah, we had to take a deep look at it recently. Um, you know, wasn't as bad as it initially looked like it was going to be. We're able to bring it back down um somewhat by managing.

SPEAKER_01

I think that was still a negotiation tactic. You know, scare the lord. It works, you know. Scare the lords. We're gonna raise the price of French fries by four times, or even when it's only two times. Oh, that wasn't that bad.

SPEAKER_00

Used to have a boss, we always said it can always get worse. So set the bar high and then make people feel good. It was a deep analysis.

SPEAKER_01

The first time we like lost our stuff, we're like, oh my goodness, and then when it's like, well, at least it wasn't that.

SPEAKER_02

Well, it wasn't intentional, but I do appreciate the uh uh the recognition that uh we we were able to save some dollars down the road. There you go. Um but what we were seeing, you know, when I when I started at ACHD, a mile of road could be a few million dollars. With last year we awarded a contract for an intersection and a and a road for 20 million dollars, right? That cost hit us too. And if we're going to and and really it's just a math equation, you you have the cost of the roads that we think are gonna be needed over the next 20 years, and so let's collect the dollars and associate that with that.

SPEAKER_01

So um so so I I do think for the listeners, because I think there's a lot of noise out there about this, and I want to give you a chance to explain it because um I'm I'm gonna give two examples and then let you kind of expand uh here. You know where Cloverdale comes down into Chindon?

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

And and there was a a river crossing plan down there forever. So for a long time, you guys were collecting all these fees, and you actually made an adjustment probably 10 years ago where you're like, hey, that's been in our CID. Is it CID, right? CIP. CIP. CIP plan. Capital improvement plan. Okay, so in your if if a project's in a capital improvement plan, you guys are collecting funds to be able to do that. And you adjust this CIP uh every four years, right? So the way the fees you back into the fees is you say, hey, we got to collect enough money to do all the things that are in the capital improvement plan. So that was a that was in there, and when you took it out, it kind of maybe softened because that would have been a giant project, crossing the river and doing everything they were gonna do. So you actually said, Hey, we we we may not need as many fees. And I remember when that happened and appreciated it. But now you look at the growth we've experienced, it's been explosive. And you start adding in some of the county roads that are gonna, you know, need to go, or the city or ACD roads that are gonna need to go in, you're just doing math, right? Exactly. You're saying, hey, if we're gonna do a Lake Hazel extension, if we're gonna do some of these things that are in our CIP now, we got to go collect the dollars for that, and you're gonna use the different ways the fund funding comes in, and impact fees are one of those things. I did I do an okay job explaining that?

SPEAKER_02

You did fantastic. Think think of roads that we may not have really been talking about 10 plus years ago. Widening Linder across the river, right? That that's a huge project. Black Cat with State Highway 16 coming in, um, the amount of growth is just really pushed west. Um you have roads that we weren't even talking about because growth was kind of headed the other way. And now with Micron and the big growth that's happening there, there's going to be some some real needed connection to get people from their homes to their jobs. You can't add jobs without houses, and you can't have houses without roads.

SPEAKER_00

So, Ryan, how do you prioritize that? How do you what how how do you look ahead and and what cadence do you have that says, okay, this is where we need to plan those future dollars and prioritize?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, we we every year we go through a prioritization process and we do a five-year plan. Um the first two years of that is our capital budget. Um, so the the immediate where are we spending dollars and then what are the projects that are coming in? Um, because every project has the phase of a design phase, buying the land the right-of-way uh to build that road, and then the actual construction phase. And so it takes time. You have to you're thinking well ahead in this process. We also partner with our cities and ask them to for their priorities, right? Each city has a bigger perspective than just one voice, right? Um, and so we ask them and say, where where are you really seeing the growth? Where do you see the the need to really focus in on projects? Um, and we we update that every single year, and we we really try to emphasize that partnership. Um, but then we also are constantly sourcing the issues and the ideas that are coming from the public. We have really good uh public communications tools to to gather information, to see it on a map, to see where we're here in those hot spots and and then jumping at it.

SPEAKER_01

And I appreciate your transparency too. So it's no when as you change the CIP, it's a public document. And I can, if I'm developing, I can say, hey, is it in the CIP? And if it is, I can know my my my fees I'm paying are going to that road that that's going in, where it becomes a little bit of a rub. If you're in an area that's fully developed and there's no real county roads that are gonna happen. Like an example is you know, we'll do a downtown office building and we'll get a giant fee, and you'll say, well, what are we really impacting? But you can look at around you and say, well, it's all one county, and it you know, those people are driving from here and there. So it doesn't take you too long after you get past the initial shock of the new fee structure to say, I get it. We're we're in this rapidly expanding, people are moving here and we got to pay for it. I also use it as an example because we get dinged all the time now. We used to be the heroes. You know, we fill the boise hole and it's like, oh, that's the greatest thing ever, and we need a big deal. We want top golf. That was the greatest thing ever. And now everyone, you know, we're we everyone's hates development right now. So it is one of the things I speak to of, hey, we are paying our way because we we have this fee structure that you know right up front, depending on the use, we pay our fee, and it goes into to kind of covering the cost of our impact. And and and I think it's a very transparent system, which is always good in government.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, we and we we allow even developers we we'd love it if even developers. See that see how that tones change?

SPEAKER_01

Even even developers.

SPEAKER_02

It was smooth though. You know, it would be lovely if everyone lived in the building that they worked in, right? Right, yeah. Commutes great, no traffic on the roads, but that's not the way it is. Not the way it is. And so you build a big building and you're gathering people from across the valley. Yeah, you know, microns building what they are, they're gonna have to gather people from a long ways away. And so those impact fees help pay for all of those improvements that are needed to get the right.

SPEAKER_01

Here's a funny story that you will really appreciate. And I think the statute of limitations is up on this, so I can tell you I never really told this story. So we were doing a building, and I was so pissed about these fees, Kara. I'm like, this is wrong. Because there's a formula, right? So you do a traffic study and it'll say, hey, you're gonna do this building and it's 150,000 square feet, and here's how it's gonna impact us. And you allow afterwards us to go back in and study it, right? So you you say, hey, if we're wrong and you build the building and you want to pay for someone to come study it and prove us wrong, you can do that. So I was, I just I couldn't wait because I'm like, I know I'm right. I know I'm right. We build this building. I pay like 20 grand because it's a big study you have to pay for to prove them wrong, right? It does the study. That that those results never saw the light.

SPEAKER_00

Never saw because when I got it back, I'm like, oh, not only were they right, I think we were actually more impactful. Yeah. We should have paid a bit more. We should have paid a bit more. Oh god.

SPEAKER_02

Buried it. Thank you for paying your fees. We appreciate it. No.

SPEAKER_00

Brian's gonna talk to you later.

SPEAKER_02

Projects have been completed. We're we're good.

Funding Risks And Voter Renewal

SPEAKER_01

We're good but but I again going back to transparency, you can complain all you want, but it's a very open process. You can talk to the commission, you can, and then and then you know, you know what the CIP is, you know what it is, and it's the way it goes. What are your what are your worries in the environment we're in with growth? I mean, uh you guys get a lot of pressure because you know, we have ITD, which is ITD, but then in Ada County, you are you you're you're where the buck stops when it comes to roads.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely. You know, the the biggest thing that I've always seen is managing expectations is your biggest challenge, right? Everybody wants everything done yesterday. And and you people sit in traffic one day and they're like, this has to be fixed tomorrow. And it takes time. And so managing those funding sources and making sure that we continue to have the money to do it. We had to talk about the impact fees because we were we just weren't collecting the fees to pay for the projects that needed to get done at the pace that they needed to get done. Uh the growth just is fast, and you you want to address those problems as close to when the problem starts. Um, the other area that we're we're in the middle of a conversation on is our vehicle registration fees. That's about a$14 million set of funds that we collect every single year. Um, just what you pay. It's it's up to like$41 for a brand new car over and above what you pay the state, right? Um that's coming up for expiration, the sunset of that's in two years, and so in 2028. So we have to go through a general election, ask for the voters to just let us keep it where it is. And so that will be something that you're you're gonna see in the next few years. But having those funding sources committed for a number of years, you you you can't plan without the money to be there. Uh we always try to be prepared if extra money comes in, and we've been grateful for the state who's helped us with a lot of the connections to state highway 16 over the last few years, given us some money for that. Um, but this year that won't be there, right? We know the state's in in a financial place where uh extra money for extra things are just not going to happen. And so uh we we continually try and be prepared to take advantage of any money that comes in, but also um you have to have that funding source continue so that you can actually build the projects because you don't want to design them and and then sit sit on them for a long time.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and it'd be really important for those funding sources to have some longevity to them so you can plan, obviously, right?

SPEAKER_02

So yeah, and and those impact fees, those vehicle registration fees really have that kind of threshold um that where we're we're limited over time.

SPEAKER_01

Can you g I I didn't realize that was up in two years. Can you go a little deeper on that? So so you'll you're gonna you're gonna be required to have it on a ballot then at one of the elections in November to renew that in Ada County. So every jurisdiction in Ada County will vote on that. Is that what it is? Is it a fifty percent vote?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it has to fifty percent plus one. Okay, um have to d to get everybody. On board with that. We've done some initial polling looking at kind of what that would look like, and we're preparing some ballot language at this time for our commission to consider. And then they'll take over and they'll be leading a campaign. At that point in time, the staff steps back and the commission and and and the community takes over in terms of running a campaign. So that will be a big deal. But in that area, at least keeping it going. If that$14 million were to go away one day, we that would be a big deal.

SPEAKER_01

When was the last increase on that fee? 2008. 2008. It's been stable since. I have been. We all have kids that are in other states. It is interesting. Our registration fees here are much, much, much lower than other states, like significantly less. And I know it kind of depends on which where you're getting your money from, but um I do think it's one of the things that, you know, I remember when my kids are registering calls cars in Arizona. I'm like, what? Like it's a it's a in Utah, same thing, right? It's a big number. But up here, so you're looking for no increase, kind of staying the same, but but critical dollars that come in.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely. And and and those funds have grown from the first time we set them. They grow based on the growth of the community, right? The more cars people are registering, the more um growth happens. They kind of naturally grow with the community, so we don't have to worry that that's happening. Could we always use more money to get more stuff done faster? Absolutely. It's just a it's a management of the time.

SPEAKER_00

Well, those growth in dollars actually are partly a result of the congestion that we're dealing with, right? Like so there's a you know, the more we can use those dollars effectively, hopefully there's there it helps remedy some of the challenges that we're facing. Exactly.

City Tension And Building Together

SPEAKER_01

So um talk about um and I know this might be sensitive, but you can you got this. There there's there is constant tension, it seems like, between the cities and ACHD. There just is. I mean, if you look back at the beater, the beater days, I mean it was like ACHD truly was a four-letter word, and it was like all the time. Um what have you done in your two years to kind of lessen that and really work together with the cities? It seems like we're in a really good place now. And why is there that conflict? And and I know every year there's legislation that goes through that state house that sometimes gets close to passing or not about changing the commission from being just one, you know, making it more uh region that that past and now and now they're trying to make it partisan. Um speak a little bit about the conflict that we hear just to kind of clear the air and and give clarity to our listeners.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's an interesting conflict. Uh my my approach has always been we serve the same people. Yeah. And so let's let's work together. One of the changes we really emphasize this last year as we did that five-year plan is we may have a lot of ideas and theories of what projects should be done, but let's listen. Let's talk to each other and really emphasize, take those top three priorities for a city. And if that's really what they want to do, listening to governments.

SPEAKER_01

That's amazing, isn't it? It is. It is. It's not a lot of people. Let's listen to each other like we're serving the same people. I love it. They keep going. But that's the truth, right?

SPEAKER_00

It's amazing how sometimes people don't.

SPEAKER_02

And we we actually can get stuff done when we work together. Yeah. Yeah. Right? What friction just slows progress down and that's increases cost. Exactly. And and that has been our focus from the very beginning of my tenure uh with ACHD. Is our first principle that we we tell the team every single um, every single time we meet, every single week to the commission is we build together. We're about building infrastructure, we'll support your vision, let's actually get stuff done. And we build together as a team with our partners, um, and and really work to get to get things done. And I think that's really had an impact, that message that we care about what you care about. Um you're concerned, we we're concerned too. Let's get stuff done together.

SPEAKER_00

Sounds like you know, when you you you run into these situations where people like to be the police, they like to have the cards in their hands and so forth and that. But when you can actually bring break down those walls and have the right conversations, the amount of time and effort to move forward, it just changes so quickly. And when you have that alignment, because you are right, we are we are all in the in this together, right? And so, how do we actually make our communities better? How do we do that?

SPEAKER_02

One of the things that's always interesting in transportation is you have really strong experts, right? You have engineers who know this stuff and know exactly the right solution. But you also have people who are drive every single day, yeah, who know what their life is like, and they tell you, and you go, well, let's listen to them too, right? Let's pay attention to what they're saying and and really have um you trust your experts, they tell you how to make sure things are safe and are engineered properly, but you also listen to the people who are having the real life experience of crossing a street or trying to get through a light and get to work and go to school. And so, really doing that together, and I think the cities have a good pulse on that. We we've always tried to have a good pulse on that, but the cities really, um, as a general purpose government, they understand where the the issues are for schools and fire and police and all those things that really um affect people's day-to-day lives. And so listening and working together on that really does have an impact.

SPEAKER_00

I think that hits the nail on the head, what you said, Ryan, in terms of uh when we start looking at things, and I can speak from our company's perspective, you know, our employees are giving us feedback that they they obviously we don't want them to sit in traffic. We want them spending time at work and we want them spending time at home. That's what we want with their families and so forth. And so when we start talking about that, you you get into these congestion issues and so forth, and then all of a sudden time becomes more valuable. So then you rush, you run into safety incidents. People are willing to make you, you know, you can go across and you can watch people going through red lights now that you never used to see. I'm not saying there wasn't, but it's changed. The speed, you know, things have changed. And so I think it's really relevant what you're saying when it comes right down to it is how do you actually advance things to really take some of those challenges off the table? Because safety is such an important thing. How do you all look at that from ACHD's perspective?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, uh, and first let me just point out even those developers.

SPEAKER_01

Um, the the big thing that on that side, we want to This is the funny before you go, like when I left Medicine, you know how many people said to me, Why on God screen earth would you leave such a noble profession to be a scumbag developer? And I always do think, well, what do you mean by that? And now I know. Now I know. Once all the people started moving around, I'm like, yeah, I should have listened 20 years ago. I should have just stayed doing chips in the ER. But we wouldn't have topgolf. You wouldn't have topgolf or all this congestion.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, exactly. Uh tell me you're far from a scumbag developer, I'll tell you that. Um our our development community builds more infrastructure than even a CHD does. And and we believe that we need to be supportive of that process.

SPEAKER_01

I don't think people understand that. So let's talk about this. So we're doing a giant project out at 10 mile right now, so where we're putting target. But what we do is we submit plans to them, and it's I don't know, I should know, but it's at least five to ten million dollars of infrastructure. They tell us exactly what we're doing. We put it in per their standards, and then we dedicate it to them at the end of it. So they maintain it, but it's a hundred percent paid for by us up front to your standards. I don't think people understand that. So you see all these subdivisions that go in, um you're paying the fees for the buildings. So so our impact to the surrounding area gets paid by the impact fees that we just talked about went up. But then you're actually you're building all the infrastructure and then turning it over to ACHD per your standard. You inspect it, you come in and say, Yep, that's that's you you did it right, you did it per our standards and our plans, and you turn it over. So most of the development that goes in is paid for by the private development. And I don't know that that's always recognized.

Safety Focus And Fast Fix Team

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, no, it's it's it's not. It we maintain all roads, but we really widen and expand your arterial roads. Yeah. Um, and that the impact fees are targeted for that. Uh, but collector roads, your local streets, the one in front of your house, that was built by a developer to give access to their development, um, and then they dedicated to ACHD. And so uh we want to support that too because we know that gets people to schools and we want um that process. We also want to listen to businesses and what and how how to do that. We have so many partners, um, and it does take some prioritization and some limited resources. You have to always have trade-offs, but we we work hard to to make sure that we're listening um before we do stuff. You talked about safety. Uh safety is a big deal. So that's our second principle that we we we build together, we build safe, and then our end goal is to build more and more of the right things. But building safe, um, that is a key component, not in only in how we operate, but what we're focused on every single day. And and the technology and the uh ideas and the infrastructure of what means safe uh continues to evolve. Uh many years ago, the idea of an on-street bike lane was the most safe thing you could ever come up with, and everyone was so excited. And in truth, it saved a lot of lives. Uh today, to really get people to want to use that, we built pathways instead of putting people on the road, getting people off of the road and over here, or or crossings and other things. We we uh our commission was really uh is really strong on this, and a few years ago created a safety uh engineering team where their goal is when an idea comes up, a need comes up, um we we take the idea and we put it in place within a year. Most projects take two, three, four, five years, depending on on the complexity of them. They they're taking things from idea to completion within a year. And and that really helps us too to be responsive. When someone calls up and says, Hey, I have this issue, we got to get it done. We're not, you know, especially when you're talking safety, you can't be like, that sounds great. Let us know how it should fit into plan, and we'll talk about it in five years from now, right? We want to be responsive, and that team is so effective at getting projects done every single year, whether it be a crossing or an improvement, an ADA, um, making it accessible for people where it's not. Um they're they're really big, and their big emphasis is those safe routes to schools and parks and and key facilities. Yeah, that's critical.

Highway 16 Micron And Growth South

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Um, that's great. Um coming, uh you think of we had ITD in for the first week of this, and we talked about kind of I84 and moving people, and then you know, us being in Ada County and the great state of Ada with ACHD had to talk to you. What what what has Highway 16 done as far as a leap forward for just moving people? And then and then talk about Micron a little bit. We haven't gotten in this is our third hour talking about transportation, but I don't think um I I actually don't think any of us understand the impact. I I like saying this and I say it all the time, but if you look at the total value of building permit, so when you submit a building permit, you have to put what the value of your building permit is in the city of Boise. That's how they that's how they calculate their fee. And in the city of Boise in 10 years, there were about$10 billion worth of buildings. And Micron is going to put in$50 billion worth of building. And so it's it's a nice number because it tells you the impact, right? Now you always hear the 250 companies that are coming to fall and their suppliers, and you just see the impact of that. But we we are not um our valley has always grown west, always. Um and it's just grown west and it's grown north. And and I think we are in for uh in fact, I I think back just a year and a half ago talking to the mayor and city council of Boise about the, you know, and and I'm I liked the guy, but when Tim Keane was here, who was the planning director who left after just a short time, he would tell you we are never going, we are never going to develop any piece of desert in this place. It's we're going up, not out, right? And so I think a year and a half ago they were saying we're not gonna, we're not we're not heading southeast, we're not have heading south or east of Micron. But that's changing. Uh the Boise Dev article last week, uh, you have the mayor now saying, Hey, we have the third bench. They're now calling uh the bench, uh, you know, and you think of the geography of this place when these glaciers melted and came through here, and and you have these, you know, people don't realize that the five mile and ten mile, they don't relate to roads, they relate to these glacier, you know, slough-offs that happened and why we created these benches. But the third bench is now gonna be um up birds of prey, up down along the bench of just east uh south of Micron. That's the third bench. How does that affect you and your planning as you look at, hey, we've always been going this way and this way, we now are going, we're now gonna go south. That's gotta scare the heck out of you, but also be exciting.

SPEAKER_02

You know, it's it would be it would scare you if we weren't already thinking about it. We've been for years preserving Kunamora Road for 200 feet of right-away since before I started at ACHD. Because we knew that the day would come that that would be an important corridor. And we uh each time the city plans, they do a comprehensive plan, we develop uh we have a master street map of what the roads will need to be. And we'll continue to to update that and maintain that so that we have the big picture and we're preparing for for stuff to happen. Um now Micron's pace is faster than maybe the the ability to get the people there. Uh and and so that will be a big part of the conversation. Um, the area in and around Micron, the area south of the airport. Um, and those are a little you can you can tell us the the truth there, Tommy, but um those are hard places to develop. You have a lot of rock, you have to blast, you have a lot of um to get the water, to get the utilities out there, that's it's it's a whole new world. Um, and it's gonna be expensive to to get things there. But once it's there, it's just gonna grow. And Micron's going to drive that. If we're not prepared, you're gonna end up with those houses in Elmore County, you're gonna end up with them, you know, farther and farther out, which just means more traffic on our roads. Um, and so we do have to be uh anticipate that and work towards that. But I would say that we've been working towards that for a while.

SPEAKER_01

Um Yeah. You know, it's interesting this whole idea of sprawl, right? And I get in trouble for talking about this, but it's so relative to what your perspective on life is, right? So you meet with the Boise City Council member and they'll talk about sprawl, but then you say, well, that's sprawl within your city. And if you don't do it, then it is Middleton and Cuna and Parma now and Elmore County. I mean, that's that's true sprawl, and it's gonna happen. So so some of this is setting expectations and kind of level setting on what what this means and what sprawl means. And I appreciate the one thing I'll tell you about you guys is um we're pretty active in all this things that are happening from a development perspective. And when you go in, it's just nice. You've got some great people, by the way. You've got some rock stars that have been there forever. But you go in and you just call and say, Hey Christy, I'm gonna come in and meet with you. And boy, you walk in, there's maps all the way across the room of, hey, this is what we've been planning for 20 years, and this is how we see it. And most of the time, um, they're they're pretty spot on for what's coming your way. And I I think as far as planning a state is one thing, but planning a county, you guys have really been in this business for a long time with really stable people that have been there for a long, long time. Not much surprises you, has been my experience.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and and that's what we believe. We want to we want our employees to be happy and want to be with us because we believe that that adds value to the public. Every person who's been there, they've done that project, they've done this, they're able to tell us those stories. Some of the the stories some of our employees can tell of when this happened or when that road, they they know where the bodies are buried, right? You know, it's it's really amazing what our team is able to do. And we believe that because of that, we are better for it.

Southern Bypass Planning And Right Of Way

SPEAKER_00

So you mentioned Kunamora Road, and and and Tommy and has really been driving, and and a number of businesses have been driving an initiative of keep Idaho moving, trying to just come up with some different, you know, suggestions, working, working with the community and government and so forth to try and and you know what are the options that are out there? How can we help as business groups? And and one of the things we've talked about is light rail, we've talked about more, you know, um, I'll say uh committed regional transit and so forth. We've also talked about a bypass or southern alternative route. Do you have any thoughts around something like that? That would be I'm talking more as far as the southern alternative route or bypass around, you know, our our city and community, cities, community, Ada County has grown so much, and and we all are, I think, in agreement that it's just going to continue to grow. Businesses are moving here, micron's expansion, people, it's just a great place to raise a family, it's a great place to live. Um any thoughts on potential planning around that for the long term and how we as a business community could help with something like that just to try and yeah, great, great question.

SPEAKER_02

And and first of all, thank you for your focus on this and and on transit and on all those things because our system works better when we have all the tools in the toolbox, right? When you narrow it down to just driving, it gets harder to manage. Um and we believe that that that's that vision of that future, maybe southern bypass, really, as you've the ideas you've been talking about, that growth south, you're gonna need to have something um that connects people there. Now, I don't know if it's going to be ACHD who builds it or whether it's gonna be ITD who builds it. Regardless, we're preserving the right-of-way because we have you have to have the land to do it. Right? You have an Eagle Road that could have been a state highway 16, but as it grew, there were decisions made and and access provided, and and then you don't have um the same thing. You have to make those decisions long ahead of time of what you're going to do. And so by preserving that land now, um, we'll be ready for um when the time comes that that really and you're starting to see those pressures like a meta or uh um uh even simplus out there. Yeah, there's there's different uh components um out there that are already putting pressures there, and and QNA's been good about that. Really, that picture started though about 2005 when there was a lot of planned communities that people were looking at. We want to build way out here. Those went away, but they the the the need they went away for a time, but now everything kind of comes full circle as we're talking again there. And so you put the plan on the map and you keep planning for it because the day will come when it's actually going to be needed.

How Business Can Support Solutions

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's well said. Um by really fast, Ryan. In kind of closing here, um, you know, we're we're excited to be doing this. Keep Idaho moving. Thank you for serving with us on it. I've definitely we're looking to kick it off. Uh, if you have a message for the business community or those listening to the show on ways we could be helpful slash involved, what what what can we do to help you and your job at ACHD? And and again, understanding that you are the collaboration guy, and I think that's what you'll be known for. But what can we do to help?

SPEAKER_02

Thank you. And and that's the first message that I would say is thank you. We are not a community without our businesses, we're not a community without um uh the people that are supported and who live here, and they're supported by the jobs that you provide. Uh so thank you for what you do every day for making this an amazing place. We want to support you. We are your neighbors. We live here in the same community with you, and we we sit in the same traffic, we sit in the same congestion, um, and and at the same construction sites, but that's progress that we're we're gonna make, and we're trying to to do everything we can. Let's keep talking uh because when we know what the the needs are, we're going to work on them. Um and by by doing that, uh we're always happy to have the support when it comes to to big initiatives, big things as we're working to make sure that we have the resources and the money available and and that big discussion around vehicle registration fees. You know, 14 million may not sound like a lot, maybe in in a company like Simplot, but or or Tommy that you do. It's a lot every single year for us to be that's one or two big roads that we can't widen or we can't um connections to schools that we can't make. Um, and so that's really important for us um when we're we're having those conversations. You know, there's there's lots of opportunities to work together, and I think we, as we all do, we're gonna get a lot done and we're gonna continue to have the amazing community that we have.

Final Takeaways And Closing Thanks

SPEAKER_00

Take us home, Garrett. Close us out. I think that's just fantastic what you're saying, Ryan. It's uh it's you know. when when we look at actually the discussions that we've been having over the past couple weeks and and so forth and it's just amazing of the commitment that we have and you you show that commitment to community you know you not only grew up here but you get it and you get the the personal side but you also get the business side and I think that's really that can get missed. It really can and so you know thank you for for your commitment and your passion around trying to actually make a difference. We're just trying to avoid somebody down the road saying why did they wait so long? That's what we're trying to avoid and if we can avoid that it saves money but it it provides convenience it provides capability is really what we're trying to do I think as a community right and so so that people can have more time. Yeah and and uh and you obviously you along with your team are really passionate about making that happen. So thank you very much. So thank you. Thanks buddy this went by fast. Appreciate you look forward to working with you. Thank you. Thanks everybody