The Meridian Transportation Commission on Monday opened work on its 2025 roadway, intersection and community‑program prioritization — now described by staff as a five‑year plan — and set a subcommittee meeting to begin ranking projects ahead of a March deadline from the Ada County Highway District (ACHD).

Heather Hill, a city staff member who presented the item, told commissioners the city will now submit two separate ranked lists — one for roads and intersections and a second for community programs — and that ACHD has changed its naming and submission conventions. “The most important 1 is that our prioritization rankings are due to ACHD on March 19th,” Hill said.

The change consolidates previously separate “programmed” and “non‑programmed” lists into a single roads list; community programs will remain separate. Hill said staff set a subcommittee meeting for Jan. 13 to begin prioritizing and aims to bring a recommendation back to the full commission on Feb. 3 so the city can forward its rankings to council and ACHD.

Members pressed staff and ACHD representatives on how to handle adjacent or related projects — notably when an intersection project and a roadway widening touch the same corridor. John Wasson of ACHD explained the agency often treats intersections as separate projects and “blow[s] out the intersection first and then work on the roadway,” but acknowledged that combining scope can make sense: "Sometimes you have to put those into pieces and parts and budget maybe only allows you to do 1 or the other." He advised the commission the subcommittee can add scope notes to request that ACHD consider linked work when feasible.

Commissioners asked for practical guidance to focus their work. Hill and staff said ACHD provided a comprehensive request list this year that includes community‑generated proposals; staff recommended concentrating on roughly the top 20–25 projects in each category as the items most likely to matter for near‑term programming. Commissioner Lewis asked staff to provide ACHD’s latest level‑of‑service map and other background materials in advance of the subcommittee meeting.

Discussion touched on several site‑specific questions the subcommittee will consider, including whether the McMillan/McDermott southeast corner sidewalk should be added and how projects near the railroad crossing at Black Cat/Franklin/Cherry should be prioritized. Hill said staff will follow up with ACHD to clarify why some adjacent corridor segments were placed on different programming timetables and to ask whether paired projects could be expanded or footnoted to reflect a coordinated scope.

The commission chair asked the subcommittee to annotate project entries with the problem each project intends to solve — for example, safety near a school, capacity, or a railroad crossing concern — to help ACHD and council consider the city’s priorities.

The commission scheduled the subcommittee work and staff will circulate background materials before the Jan. 13 meeting. The city’s prioritization rankings must be submitted to ACHD by March 19.

Less urgent procedural items for this cycle include ACHD’s scoring method changes and a larger comprehensive list ACHD provided; staff said those materials will be part of the subcommittee packet.