Could a new ‘mini city’ in Meridian be like Boise’s Hyde Park? What’s planned
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Developers propose 3,500 homes, retail and office space in NW Meridian.
- Idaho 16 extension and new sewer lift station accelerate area’s development timeline.
- City envisions a self-sustaining ‘mini city’ with housing, jobs, schools and parks.
Hundreds of acres of farmland in the northwest reaches of Meridian are on the path to development.
That corner of the fast-growing city has been an anticipated development hot spot for the past few years. In recent months, developers have zeroed in, filing plans that could bring almost 3,500 homes, retail and offices to an area about the size of Garden City.
Once developed, the area is envisioned to have a “unique” identity and feel that residents won’t find elsewhere in Meridian, according to Caleb Hood, Meridian’s deputy director of community development. Hood told the Idaho Statesman that planning efforts for the region have been unusual because planners “didn’t have a model to really look at” within the city and instead had the opportunity to “draw up a ... mini city.”
A roughly four-square-mile region of Northwest Meridian — bound by Chinden Boulevard and Ustick, Can Ada and McDermott roads — is expected to be siphoned off from the rest of the city by the Idaho 16 extension to the east, Hood said.
“It’s really sort of this orphaned part of the city,” Hood said by phone. So, planners, in coordination with landowners and developers, have looked at ways to make the region “self-sufficient” while also connecting it to the rest of Meridian.
A focus on mixing residential and commercial uses would ideally make the region like Southeast Boise’s “Bown Crossing on steroids,” Hood said. Also comparing the character of the envisioned area to Hyde Park in Boise’s North End, he said, “It’s all-inclusive ... The idea is we put essentially all the services and jobs and parks, schools, everything you need to sort of be your own standalone” region.
Hood said residents wouldn’t have to cross the limited-access Idaho 16 to get the goods or services they need, but Northwest Meridian still wouldn’t be “an island.”
New freeway, $26M lift station mean growth is coming
“We’ve been anticipating this (growth) for a while,” Hood said, since the Idaho Transportation Department first began discussing extending Idaho 16 south through the Treasure Valley roughly 20 years ago. At the time, that meant a moratorium on development while ITD figured out a route for the freeway, Hood said. Now, construction on the freeway is picking up, with completion expected in 2027, and city officials are getting ready for development to finally “heat up.”
Another sign that development is soon to come: Construction is underway on a $26 million sewer lift station that would serve the area.
“The next biggest thing that is key to having that area ... open up to development is sewer,” Hood said. The lift station, which is slated for the southeast corner of Can Ada and McMillan roads, is expected to be complete next year, according to city spokesperson Trevor Smith.
And while much of the region is still undeveloped, with the exception of Owyhee High School, which opened in 2021, developers have recently proposed four large-scale developments that would drastically change Northwest Meridian.
1. 400+ homes near new private Christian school
In March, Jim Conger’s Boise company, the Conger Group, applied to build 412 single-family homes on 51 acres at the northwest corner of McMillan and the coming Idaho 16 extension, just west of McDermott. The proposed subdivision, called Rockwell Greens, would include the residential component, plus pathways and a park with a pool and three pickleball courts, according to the application.
The subdivision would provide “much-needed housing options that people can afford in this quickly developing area of Meridian, which will help support commercial and retail uses,” developers said in a letter to the city describing the proposal.
Rockwell Greens would sit east of the planned new Cole Valley Christian School, which is under construction at McMillan and Owyhee Storm Avenue.
The subdivision is the furthest along of new residential developments recently planned for the area. It is scheduled to go before the Planning and Zoning Commission in a public hearing on Thursday, June 5. The commission would consider Conger Group’s request to annex land for the development, and members of the public could weigh in. The commission’s recommendation would then go to the City Council in another public hearing.
2. Master-planned development with 2,300+ homes
An Eagle development company wants to build single- and multifamily housing, plus commercial and industrial components, on 466 acres southwest of the intersection of McMillan and Owyhee Storm, according to a preliminary application filed with the city in March. The development, called the Fields District, would be roughly three times the size of Ann Morrison Park in Boise.
Early plans include a breakdown with 879 single-family homes, 405 town homes and 1,072 apartments — for a total of 2,356 homes.
Conceptual plans also show two commercial areas, a larger one at the northeast corner of Owyhee Storm and Ustick and a smaller one at the southeast corner of McMillan and Star roads. The larger area includes a total of 234,000 square feet of commercial space arranged as a large, 120,000-square-foot building with an attached 18,000-square-foot building and nine smaller buildings around it. The other commercial area would add another roughly 95,000 square feet of commercial space across six buildings.
The Fields District’s industrial component includes 11 lots at the northwest corner of the development, east of Can Ada and south of Five Mile Creek. A 40-acre park would sit to the east.
Early plans indicate that the developer, James Merkle of Northern Land Holdings, with the aid of Boise-based KM Engineering, envisions “commercial and residential integration” with inspiration drawn from areas including The Village at Meridian and the shopping center with Albertsons and the UPS Store on Fairview Avenue.
Developers met with city planning staff on March 18 and have not yet filed a written application. Plans could change as they progress.
According to notes from city officials in the city’s record, planning staff noted that “We anticipate that the elementary schools with boundaries in the area of this development including the new school will be full or over capacity within 3-5 years of opening based on already entitled developments.” Kimberly Warren, a project manager for Meridian Parks and Recreation, also noted a desire to see additional plans for pathways, including a parkway along Five Mile Creek.
3. Little yet known about Trilogy subdivision
Preliminary applications filed by John A. Laude Sr.’s Trilogy Development in Boise indicate plans for a large subdivision along Star Road. Trilogy and Bailey Engineering filed three preliminary applications called Fields 82, Fields 99 and Fields 207, each corresponding to the number of acres proposed. Fields 82 was filed in 2024 and included the address 3895 N. Star Road. The most recently filed was Fields 207 on April 24.
The three filings indicate a desired traditional-residential neighborhood zoning. Under Meridian’s development code, that means a minimum net density of six units per acre, generally understood as a medium density. On the smallest of Trilogy’s filings, Fields 82, that could translate to 492 or more homes.
Subdivisions under the traditional-residential neighborhood designation must have at least two different housing types, which could mean something as simple as attached versus detached garages, or as different as single-family homes versus town homes or apartments.
Representatives from Trilogy and Bailey Engineering did not respond to emailed requests from the Statesman to learn more.
4. Luxury-home builder revives plans for nearly 700 homes
National luxury-home builder Toll Brothers has brought back plans for 689 homes in two subdivisions straddling Ustick Road.
Neighbors have raised concerns about the subdivisions’ density and potential for traffic congestion along Ustick, but Becky McKay, owner of Engineering Solutions, who designed the development, told the Statesman that planned improvements to Ustick would help alleviate traffic.
The Ada County Highway District seeks to widen Ustick from McDermott to Black Cat Road in 2027, which would include an intersection providing access to one of the planned subdivisions. Before that, ACHD plans on widening Ustick further east, from Black Cat to Ten Mile Road, by 2026. Work at the Ustick and McDermott intersection is coming thanks to the Idaho 16 extension.
The subdivisions, called Dayspring and Springday, are expected to go before the Planning and Zoning Commission in a public hearing at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 5, at Meridian City Hall. The public will have an opportunity to weigh in. Rockwell Greens, the Conger subdivision, is also scheduled to be considered at the meeting.
This story was originally published June 3, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
