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Council hears update on ITD study and NEPA timeline; staff to press for answers on Highway 44 impacts
Summary
City staff told the Middleton City Council on Oct. 1 that consultants expect to complete a six-month refinement of four alternatives for the Highway 44 corridor before a federal NEPA review begins, and the council asked staff to press ITD for clear answers on local impacts.
City staff updated the Middleton City Council on Oct. 1 about the ongoing planning study and federal environmental review process for the state highway corridor through Middleton, saying consultants expect to finish a detailed refinement of four alternatives in roughly six months and that the project will then move into the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process.
Jason, a city staff member leading the update, said David Evans and Associates and the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) expect to complete the current phase (called PELs) and hand final recommendations and technical reports to ITD in October; those deliverables will inform the NEPA scoping. He said the consultant is scoping the NEPA work as an environmental impact statement (EIS), the higher-level NEPA product, which typically takes about two years to complete.
"They are scoping this as an environmental impact statement," Jason said, adding that the consultants have scoped Phase 2A to develop design elements common across all four alternatives and to further refine the alternatives through public workshops and staff technical meetings. Jason said the Phase 2A work would include additional surveying and design refinements for sections considered similar across alternatives (for example, Highway 84 to Canyon Lane and Marjorie to Star) and would likely require four public workshops and four technical staff meetings.
Council members pressed staff for a clearer response from ITD because local businesses have reported hesitation to invest on Highway 44 pending a final route decision. Mayor Kelsey asked staff to prioritize the Highway 44 routing for local concerns when communicating with ITD and the consultant. Council instructed staff to prepare a follow-up communication asking ITD to respond specifically to the city’s previously submitted list of local concerns and to consider escalating the tone if ITD’s initial written response is insufficient.
Staff described next steps: finalizing Phase 2A deliverables, scheduling public workshops, coordinating with local stakeholders including the school district, Riverpointe development, drainage and irrigation districts, and advancing the NEPA timetable when the Phase 2A work is complete. Jason said the EIS timeline could extend into 2026–2028 if the scoping remains at the EIS level and that any major land-use changes in the city before the NEPA is complete could require ITD to reassess previous environmental findings.
Council did not take a formal vote on the study but directed staff to continue engagement with ITD and to draft a follow-up letter seeking explicit responses to the council’s concerns.
