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Ada County Highway District proposes two-service-area model and big increases to impact fees
Summary
ACHD staff proposed shifting to two service areas and much higher transportation impact fees — roughly $8,900 per single-family home in western Ada County vs. $5,348 in the east — citing project volumes and post‑COVID construction cost inflation; ACHD will publish a formal draft and seek public comment in September–October.
Justin Lucas, chief of operations and infrastructure at the Ada County Highway District, briefed the Meridian City Council on ACHD's draft capital improvements plan (CIP) and proposed impact fee update and said the plan is the product of more than a year of work with consultant Kittelson and Associates. "This plan allows us to, essentially charge developers to, pay for the costs of widening roads that are associated with growth," Lucas said.
Lucas told council that the draft recommends a two-service-area model (West and East), so fees collected in each area would be spent for projects in that same area. He explained that the difference in fees reflects the number and cost of projects in each area: "The higher the the more amount of projects, the more projects you wanna get done, the higher the fee essentially, which is why there's a discrepancy there."
Using ACHD's representative calculations, Lucas said a single-family detached home would face an impact fee of $8,929 in the Western service area and $5,348 in the Eastern service area under the draft. He contrasted those numbers with the current single-service-area fee, which he said is "a little under $4,000 today." Lucas said the principal drivers of the increase are updated project cost estimates and trip-generation-based methodology, and he attributed substantial cost rises to post‑COVID inflation for construction and right-of-way.
Walter Steed, the city's representative on ACHD's Capital Improvement Citizen Advisory Committee, told the council the CICAC vote on a single service area was close and that members were split: "It came down 4 to 3 for a single. 1 small community represented in the CICAC wanted a single for the reason that Justin's already explained the fairness of My Money, Your Money."
Council members asked for analyses of alternative scenarios. Councilman Overton asked for the single-service-area fee numbers for comparison; Lucas estimated an approximate single-service-area fee would land in the roughly $7,000 range for a single-family home. Council members also probed how the CIP, the 20-year project list, and the 5-year work plan interact, and Lucas said the CIP identifies 20-year needs while the 5-year program prioritizes which projects move forward sooner.
Lucas warned that even in a strong fee-collection year — he cited a recent high collection year of about $30 million — very large projects (he cited an example estimate near $100 million for Linder Road between Chinden and Highway 44) mean major projects will take many years of collections, grants and other funding to build. He urged Meridian to provide early feedback on service-area choices and said ACHD will publish a formal draft for public review over September and October and that city comments in that period would be most useful.
