Developer of this massive Eagle community is building an overpass. Here’s why

Improving highways is a slow process that can take years, but developers building in the Eagle Foothills have teamed up with state government to speed things up on an overpass crossing a major north-south route from Emmett to Interstate 84.

The Board of the Spring Valley Community Improvement District, which oversees the 6,000-acre, 7,000-home Valnova development off Highway 16, on Wednesday approved a donation of 16.59 acres to the Idaho Transportation Department.

As part of a public-private partnership between ITD and Valnova’s developer, Clyde Capital Group, the land will be used to build a $12.5 million overpass, paid for by Spring Valley CID. As part of the agreement, the developers are footing the bill for construction in exchange for removing the cost of future impact fees. This shaved years off the timeline to build the overpass, which began in early March and is expected to be completed in December.

Paying for the overpass now means having more immediate access to the infrastructure and helps residents and construction crews access the subdivision, Jill Youmans, a communications manager for the Idaho Transportation Department told the Idaho Statesman.

“The real thing Valnova is getting out of this is access to infrastructure now, versus ITD coming whenever we get funded to build an overpass, which could be years from now,” Youmans said.

That partnership includes a traffic mitigation agreement, which requires Clyde Capital Group and Spring Valley CID to build transportation improvements proportional to Valnova’s anticipated impact on the state’s transportation system.

“The goal is to deliver needed roadway capacity and safety improvements proactively, ahead of future growth and traffic demands,” said Dana Biberston, a strategy specialist for Clyde Capital Group working on the Valnova development.

Beefing up infrastructure can be a slow process for state and city governments, and Valnova is going to need it. Developers plan to have as many as 7,100 homes, two elementary schools, one middle school and one high school built over the course of the next 30 years.

The public-private partnership allows developers to break ground on public infrastructure projects like the overpass before the bulk of the community is built.

Youmans compared the agreement to a similar situation involving the Stibnite Gold Mine in McCall. Perpetua Resources, the owners of the mine, “are paying upfront to improve intersections all around it in McCall, which is to make things easier for the company’s trucks to navigate,” she said. “Everybody in McCall gets better roads, and they get intersections their own trucks can navigate more easily.”

“This type of agreement is a huge win-win for Idahoans,” said Youmans. “The developers essentially said, ‘Hey, we agreed that this needs to go here, we’ll build it,’ and then ITD and the state of Idaho get to take advantage of the fact that developers can often move quicker and faster than we can, because they don’t have to enter an (Idaho Transportation Investment Program) process.”

The Idaho Transportation Investment Program, or ITIP, is a program for any new highways, bridges, public transportation, railroads, aviation and other transportation projects. It runs on a seven-year cycle, and approval of new projects to be included in the process takes at least five months to be approved and years to be developed. ITD’s current plan covers projects through 2032.

If the project had gone through ITIP, the overpass plan would have needed to be drafted, evaluated by ITD, acquired funding, submitted for public comment, then receive approval at the state and federal level before the first shovel could strike the ground, which typically takes years, according to Youmans.

Rose Evans contributed to this story.