ACHD warns of the cost of 1,900 new houses in Kuna. The city could approve them anyway
The challenges of fragmented local government were on full display Wednesday night as the Ada County Highway District weighed a developer’s application to build a 1,900-home subdivision on the eastern edge of Kuna.
The development, called Spring Rock, would convert 761 acres of rangeland into a master-planned community with houses, apartments, a school and stores. It would go in just east of the Falcon Crest Golf Course, where Kuna last year approved over 2,000 homes.
Commissioners Kent Goldthorpe and Jim Hansen previously warned that the highway district cannot afford to make the road improvements that would be needed to support Spring Rock’s motorists.
Goldthorpe voiced his anxiety again Wednesday. “I am really, seriously concerned that the traffic generated ... is going to far exceed what we are expecting,” he said.
The highway district can’t make land-use decisions — those fall to city councils. As Boise and its suburbs have grown, Ada County cities’ decisions to approve developments have often been at odds with the highway district’s plans for the road system — and vice versa. When roadways don’t match up with development, the result is often a system of overbuilt and underbuilt corridors that fail to meet forecasted traffic demands.
That’s the way the system has worked since the 1970s, when voters fed up with poor road maintenance approved stripping cities of their authority over roads and handing it to the new ACHD.
While the ACHD commissioners can’t deem whether a proposed development can be built, they are responsible for evaluating a developer’s plans to ensure they meet the highway district’s roadway standards. For example, ACHD can demand that a developer make certain improvements to intersections adjacent to the project — but only if traffic studies back up the highway district’s argument.
That provides greater predictability for developers. Before they submitted their application, the developers of Spring Rock — land developer Dave Yorgason, and local real estate brokers Christopher Findlay and Pat Duynslager — knew they would have to pay for some road improvements, like additional turn lanes, traffic signals and a roundabout.
Outside of those official policies and standards, the commissioners can demand little more. That’s the problem Goldthorpe ran into.
The second-term Republican commissioner, who represents Meridian and Kuna, came to the meeting prepared to approve the roadways within Spring Rock, so long as the developers agreed to several new demands beyond what was in ACHD’s official policy. His wish list was long: a new park-and-ride lot, bike lanes along all roads, and additional connections to adjacent roads.
“I’ve been working on this list for weeks,” Goldthorpe told the Statesman.
Hansen leaped to support Goldthorpe. But Commissioner Rebecca Arnold raised a concern.
“Don’t these conditions go far beyond the legal requirements that can be placed on the applicant by this commission?” she asked.
The answer was yes.
“We are not a land use agency,” Arnold said, backed up by ACHD’s General Counsel Steve Price. “I recognize there are concerns about this development — about the density and what’s going to happen in this area. But they are not issues that we can legally address.”
But if ACHD can’t make the developer do more, will the Kuna City Council?
Hansen predicted that Kuna would interpret ACHD’s approval of the developers’ road plans as a sign that the commissioners had no complaints about the project.
“The pattern is that they will make the assumption that all things related to transportation have been determined by this commission,” Hansen said.
Given the commissioners’ inability to force improvements beyond ACHD’s own policy, Price suggested a more informal way to push Kuna in the desired direction: Why not write them a letter? In it, the commissioners could suggest conditions that the Kuna council could place on the development for approval.
But the commissioners couldn’t agree on what those conditions should be. Did they want to debate each and every one of Goldthorpe’s recommendations, including the proposed park-and-ride?
“A park-and-ride?” Commissioner Sara Baker asked incredulously. “Using what? The bus service that doesn’t exist out there? Why would that need to be included?”
In the end, at the urging of Price and Commissioner Mary May, the commissioners voted 3-2 to approve the roadway plan, since it aligned with ACHD policy. They also voted to include a note to the city of Kuna with a general statement of their concerns over the project’s impact on the road system.
Goldthorpe, who voted against the project with Hansen, looked defeated.
“We can’t pay for it anyway,” he said.
Price pushed back.
“Don’t forget that these people will be paying property taxes in perpetuity, which goes toward the maintenance of these facilities,” he said. “The tax base increase is something that should be considered.”
ACHD commissioners aren’t the only officials raising concerns about Spring Rock. Ada County Commissioners Diana Lachiondo and Kendra Kenyon sent a letter in October to Kuna officials, echoing the highway district’s worries.
“This application will prematurely expand urban and suburban types of land uses in rural areas of Ada County, extending demands for public facilities, services and utilities in this remote area of Ten Mile Creek,” the commissioners wrote. “This subdivision will create an increased demand on many of our county services ... Additionally, this development will result in increased car dependency, increased strain on utility services, loss of open space, and several other negative effects.”
Yorgason, one of the developers, reaffirmed his committed to the project before the ACHD commissioners on Wednesday.
“We’re choosing to do a little more than what is required,” said the longtime Boise land use consultant. “I strongly believe in more open space and more connectivity than is typically required.”
The Kuna City Council will consider the Spring Rock subdivision on Tuesday, Jan. 28.
Kent Goldthorpe’s proposed conditions to approving Spring Rock:
These are the conditions that Goldthorpe had hoped to demand of the developer. They are copied verbatim.
- That all anticipated traffic studies to be conducted at the sale of the 350th lot be accelerated to the 175th lot unless improvements requiring those studies have already been completed.
- That the two traffic signals contemplated in the staff report be installed prior to the 100th home sale.
- That a “Park-N-Ride” lot be constructed by the 350th lot.
- That all collectors and arterials contemplated within the staff report include detached sidewalks as well as 8’ protected bike facilities, the design of which to be determined by staff.
- That all road construction contemplated to connect Pleasant Valley Road and Cloverdale Road be completed by the 150th lot.
- Construct all road improvements anticipated at Pleasant Valley Road by the 150th lot.
- That all road improvements be conducted on Ten Mile Creek Road, Five Mile Road, Gem Valley Drive or Hubbard Road be completed by the 150th lot.
- That the school site not be located on an arterial.
This story was originally published January 22, 2020 at 11:55 PM.
