City Government
Boise Wrong on Ustick Issue
November 1, 2005 
The ongoing feud between the Boise City Council and Ada County Highway District over Ustick Road is a direct result of rampant developments along the once rural country road.
After years of approving thousands of housing units, office parks, retail outlets and their own library-recreation center along Ustick, Boise has created the demand to widen the road to accommodate increased traffic volume.
Just like Harris ranch on the east end of town, increased development means increased traffic and residents don’t want all the cars in their front yards. On Warm Springs they claimed historic status and forced an alternate route to the heart of the city across a yet to be built new bridge.
In the case of Ustick there is no alternate route. Adding to the problem is a new 97,000 square foot Kohl’s Department store to be built at the corner of Ustick and Eagle Road. There is no doubt a reliever to crowded Fairview is needed. Boise council candidates are floating various plans to eliminate ACHD, restructure the agency, split it into a City and County function, etc. The only plan that would truly work is for the city to exercise some self control and STOP approving development unless they are prepared to expand the roads, sewers, ugly power lines, and schools to accommodate the growth.
Meanwhile the city pays dues to the Chamber of Commerce which is planning a national advertising campaign to lure even more people (and their cars) and businesses to Boise. Boise has its own “Economic Development Office” which spends tax dollars to attract new businesses as well. Is there something wrong with this picture? Spend money to get more people and then spend even more to take care of them! Former Sen. Steve Symms used to say, “You can’t suck and blow at the same time.” We agree.
In true humble GUARDIAN fashion we offer a real compromise–not the silly plan to pave five lanes and paint stripes for three lanes being considered. We suggest a PARKWAY. Instead of an expansion, think of it as a RESTORATION with trees and shrubs not unlike Harrison Boulevard.
No doubt the VOLUME of cars dictates a wider street. How about a FOUR lane road with a landscaped median? Allow turns ONLY at intersections. Construct wide intersections and permit U-turns. It is a safer alternative, will handle the traffic volume at reduced speeds, and if done right will reduce noise, pollution, and sound. Costs more, but well worth it.
Finally, thanks to lobbying efforts of the past Boise city council, voters are not allowed to vote for 80% of the ACHD commissioners. We can vote only for the single commissioner in our district, leaving the other four free to do as they wish without fear of recrimination at the polls.
When the ACHD was expanded from three to five members, instead of having more of a voice on the commission, we got less because Boise asked the legislature to structure the new law to eliminate AT LARGE voting. At large voting needs to be reinstated so we can all vote for all the ACHD commissioners.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Nov 1, 2005, 9:10 am
In this unfortunate situation, I’m sympathetic to:
– ACHD
– the homeowners who live along Ustick.
I’m sympathetic to ACHD because they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. The 5-lane plan has been approved and stands to be implemented, but now the latecomers are clamoring for further review and/or a 3-lane boulevard, and painting ACHD as the insensitive villains in the melodrama. (A lovely tree-lined boulevard would be splendid… but how much traffic capacity are we willing to sacrifice for the ambiance? The main purpose of roads is to move traffic.) ACHD is also still smarting from the Curtis Road chapter. You may recall that they built a 3-lane road with lovely landscaped shoulders. Perhaps somewhat like people are envisioning for Ustick. (The 3-lane road was planned and approved after everybody weighed in.) Within days, it was obvious that more traffic-carrying capacity was needed, and ACHD was pressured into widening it to 5 lanes… and everybody told ’em they were idiots for making it 3 lanes in the first place! Who can blame ’em for not wanting to repeat THAT ugly scenario?
I’m sympathetic to the residents along Ustick, who are going to be the victims, no matter what happens. There’s something wrong when the close-in people’s lives and situations are turned upside down to accommodate those who are moving out into “the country,” and need a commute lane. My first tendency is to say “screw ’em” about those farther out people… let ’em sit and stew in their SUVs on those 2-lane country roads every morning and afternoon. As the TV commercial jingle says, “There’s a price you pay, to get away…”
I agree with the Guardian on the city’s needing to take some ownership of the problem when they approve every new crackerbox neighborhood project that crosses their desks. And I also agree that “at large” ACHD commissioner voting was, and would be, better than the current situation.
Nov 1, 2005, 12:03 pm
David Eberle understands (The Statesman Readers View, 10/31/05) the City must provide many services that require “sensible land-use planning and responsible zoning”. What he does not say is that, ACHD is a special purpose public works agency, which is out of control. Boise City does not allow its Public Works Department to engage in projects without full public hearings within the City. Jerome Mapp has finally come to the conclusion that the most direct way to control ACHD is to revoke its charter.
Another way to control ACHD is to NOT allow them to vote on policy issues and transportation projects at the MPO level. The MPO is the Metropolitian Planning Organization from which the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration requires a concensus on transportation projects before your Federal gasoline taxes are returned to Idaho and Ada County. Our MPO, formerly known as Ada Planning Association is now known as COMPASS.
The Federal Highway Administration recognizes that road building is a form of land-use planning and requires that municipalities (those with road building a responsibility within their public works departments) come together in a region to agree that land-use planning relative to roads, transit, open space, waterways, industry, air space, etc. are in reasonable balance. Unfortunately the way COMPASS is structured, roadway land-use planning is unethically biased by allowing ACHD to lobby and vote for its own projects.
When ACHD says that the 5-lane Ustick road was approved, they are referring to the COMPASS vote, which was not subject of a Boise City public hearing.
Nov 1, 2005, 3:10 pm
ACHD is notorious for its poorly planned projects. However, the City can take its fair share of the blame. To state the City doesn’t let its Public Works dept. engage in projects without public hearing is a joke at the present. Evidently, the “poop farm” was doing plenty of “stuff” without full disclosure to the public.
The Public Works dept. is divided into enterprise fund areas and those that are tax funded. The Public Works Commission also has a say in all of this and that leaves the City Council wandering in la la land much of the time.
I love the Guardian’s suggestion of a parkway. I lived in West Boise for many years just off Ustick and then off Cloverdale for awhile. The area clearly needs something, but the Council (present and past) can take plenty of blame for the out of control approval of growth without concern for getting people to and from it.
Nov 2, 2005, 10:29 am
I find it interesting how much Tam has to say about Boise issues, when she apparently lives “out in the country”. Why does growth happen haphazardly? Because people think they can go have country living outside of the city center. Stick to your farm Tam – you chose to leave.
Nov 2, 2005, 12:10 pm
DTrain
Tam reminds me of the comments that are made at almost every city council and P and Z hearing…. I not against growth BUT… ( add you own phase here), and I moved to Boise 5 years ago, and I’m against growth ( fail to mention that they have had 3 kids and parent have moved here)
Growth is like a balloon, if you squeeze one side it will pop out somewhere else. Has any one of you seen the housing going up in BOISE county. Wake up Boise the people that live in the outlying areas are working in Boise and using our services…. and not paying for them. Maybe we should encourage good growth, and not run it off where you and I in Boise will pay more taxes…
Nov 2, 2005, 2:43 pm
I didn’t realize I needed to live downtown to chime in my 2 cents worth on Boise City issues. I am likely a bit older than many who post on this site. Perhaps knowing that will put some things into perspective. I lived in West Boise almost 17 years ago. I currently live on a bit more than one acre…hardly a “farm”, but it’ll do for me and mine. It is certainly in more of a rural setting, but I have lived here for 15 years, when it was really country and not surrounded by subdivisions. By the way I bought an existing old home then not even in the area of impact. I have attended plenty of P and Z and City Council, and County Commission meetings without ever adding a BUT to I am against growth. My opinion is that we have officials who exhibit great difficulty saying NO! pure and simple and who take private property rights and comingle them with their own insatiable desire for impact fees, tax base and school revenues. I once believed in carefully managed growth, since the growth was apparently unavoidable. I have seen enough over my adult life to now believe there is no such thing.
Nov 2, 2005, 4:54 pm
Actually, I think you should live within Boise city limits to chime in your two cents. It never fails to amaze me that folks from Kuna or Middleton or wherever write in to the Statesman, etc. about Boise City decisions. I live IN the city (born and raised) and I want managed growth that is contiguous to the city – not a development that gives people the rural life. Why do you think people keep pushing out of the city limits and taking up farm land? Because folks like you led the way by leaving for the country. You can’t have it both ways.
Nov 3, 2005, 5:13 pm
Actually, I think the attitude of living within Boise city limits in order to chime in on Boise affairs shows how one doesn’t want to see anything beyond their own backyard. Dtrain, you must not be aware of how many civic leaders in this state “look up” to the capital city for direction in public policy and planning. The entire Treasure Valley has been modeled after Boise thanks to Boise’s P & Z setting an example by taking up all the farmland for “country living”. If Boise city officials are doing it, it must be good for everyone, right?!
If no one moved into the valley from other places, there would still be a need for new houses to be built unless you kill off one old timer for every new generation born. After all, you cannot have it both ways.
Nov 3, 2005, 6:14 pm
It would be nice if the real facts on Ustick were to get out rather than the spin machine at the ACHD. It would be nice if the Statesman sent a real reporter to the meetings and not an editorial writer.
Fact 1 – Ustick was only changed to five lanes by ACHD in January 2004. Up until then it was in all plans as 3 lanes Preserve for 5 not build for 5 until 2025.
Fact 2 – ACHD has never held a public hearing on this issue. They held a public info meeting in October 2004 to tell people that it was going to be five lanes, but please pick a sidewalk type. ACHD can’t even tell the truth about the feedback they got at the meeting. The vast majority were against 5 lanes, but they spin it as a slight majority in favor.
Fact 3 – Traffic counts on Ustick Rd were 2-3000 cars per day higher in 1995-6 than they are today. Why? Because Meridian is developing their own services, retail and employment and their residnets don’t need to come into Boise just to buy lumber or groceries anymore. It’s called growing up.
Fact 4 – ACHD Commissioner John Franden has said in public, twice now, that 90% of the traffic on Ustick is local. If this is the case, why build 5 lanes ACHD?
Fact 5 – Five lanes carry up to 50,000 cars per day. By building 5 lanes on Ustick, ACHD doesn’t have to buy expensive commercial right of way on Fairview to expand to 7 lanes as is in the existing, longstanding plans. They can buy, condemn is more likely, land cheaper on Ustick and turn Ustick into another commercial bonanza for some developer. Maybe one of the developers that contribute to the Idaho Pac that funds ACHD Commissioner campaigns.
Fact 6- Building out five lanes will kill the neighborhood, not just those who live and have small businesses and offices along Ustick but back into the totally residential areas as well. Look at Orchard, look at Overland and see what the crime rates are.
ACHD should put a stay on this ill conceived and unneeded project. Wait until Chinden Blvd is complete and see what happens to the traffic then. As taxpayers we shouldn’t have to spend $10,000,000 to ruin a neighborhood. And as taxpayers, we should get a break from the ACHD and have them stop using our tax dollars to spin their exagerations, half truths and flat out lies by their media people.
Apr 3, 2006, 12:22 am
I think the whole boise area is laid out rather ridiculously. How many times do they have to tear down and reconstruct the same roadway to figure out simple traffic flow? New growth, new roadways… make sense?
Does it not occur to them with all this new construction, the need for roadways to get to and fro that can handle all this POTENTIAL traffic? Isnt that part of development?
There truely are more than enough people living here now and the quality of living has really taken a dive. Look at all the drive by shootings at just the local buisnesses, not to mention all the crime and vandalism.
I was born and raised here and lived on the East end of Ustick practically my whole life of 36yrs. My mother and I went to the same grade school that my daughter now goes to. You can’t drive through town anymore without giving up at least 30-45min of your life one way, that’s time you will never get back.
I remember what traffic was like before the 44th hill closure at the end of Ustick and yes the Curtis Rd extention…what a joke. Those poor people that lost their homes.
Look how long it took them to figure that out! Road rage is a problem and it’s no wonder. I think the growth here has gotten out of hand. I have to agree with Sara