West Ada County-Meridian will plan for new I-84 interchange

Article published Sep 25, 2006
by Kathleen Kreller @ The Idaho Stateman

Meridian will plan for new I-84 interchange
City will bring design experts, public together for 4 days to craft Ten Mile area's future

Meridian leaders are hoping a days-long blitzkrieg of planning sessions, public meetings and debate will hammer out the layout and look for a four-square-mile area around the future Ten Mile freeway interchange.

City leaders know that once the new interchange is installed, the area's current rural nature will change forever over the next 10 years. Developers are planning huge new shopping centers, apartments, office buildings, stores and homes.

So Meridian is launching a $65,000 study to decide what the area around the interchange will look like. And local transportation agencies are amassing funds to construct the interchange and making plans to improve and expand roads that will someday feed the interstate at Ten Mile Road.
The four-day study starts today and runs through Thursday, Sept. 28 at the empty Jabil building, 1303 E. Central Drive in Meridian. The study is known as a "charette," and involves a series of intensive workshops where design experts work with the public to develop the plan. The public is encouraged to attend.

"The Ten Mile interchange is a critical need for our region. We've been asking for it and planning for it for 30 years. It's finally becoming a reality," said Meridian traffic planner Steve Siddoway. "We are really trying to interface the planning of land use and transportation together in a way we have never really done before. We want the public to come ... to make this a better plan."
Developers and city planners have said the area just north of a future interchange at Ten Mile Road likely will develop first, with large retail stores, malls, office buildings and restaurants. Apartments, duplexes and townhouses likely will be built farther away from the interchange, they say. A developer has purchased acres of land near the Ten Mile overpass with plans to build commercial centers and office buildings.

Ten Mile Road is the next logical place for commercial growth in Meridian because all the available land along other commercial areas such as Eagle Road and Main Street will be built out in the next five years, David Turnbull, president of Brighton Corp., who co-owns about 120 acres near Ten Mile, has said.

Residents, traffic planners and city staff have discussed a new interchange at Ten Mile for years, and city leaders like Meridian Mayor Tammy de Weerd have zealously lobbied for it.
The Idaho Transportation Department secured $19.6 million in federal money in July to build the interchange, and remaining funds could come from former Gov. Dirk Kempthorne's $1.6 billion highway plan that is paid for with GARVEE (grant anticipation revenue vehicle bonds. The entire interchange project is estimated to take about two years and could start sometime in 2009.

The plan will include the area running from Linder Road west to McDermott Road and from Overland Road north across the interstate to the rail line.