Support for new ACHD Alliance
I have always been a proponent of better regional cooperation and have spent my first year in office promoting this concept. For those looking for collaboration and cooperation in an otherwise polarized political atmosphere, here it is.
A big thank you to Ada County Highway District Commissioner Sherry Huber for her leadership at a meeting on November 9, 2007 with elected officials from Ada County’s six cities, the county and the highway district. The meeting was the second “Growth Summit” intended to craft a better approach to managing new subdivisions and roadway improvements.
Huber listened politely for 90 minutes as the discussion of forming a new “alliance” moved along at the pace of rush hour traffic. The alliance concept was the recommendation of an Urban Land Institute study commissioned and funded by ACHD. With only 30 minutes left in the scheduled 2-hour meeting, Huber recognized the dialogue was threatening to suffocate this important innovation. Not willing to let the past be repeated, she chose the perfect moment to resuscitate the discussion.
“Lets get it done!” she proclaimed. “Everybody is going to have to give up power to gain power”. It was exactly the right words expressed at exactly the right time by exactly the right elected official in order to move this alliance forward for local road improvements.
There is not an elected official in Ada County that doesn’t support the concept that growth should pay its own way, yet here we sit with a deficit of more than $200 million in local road improvement and a deficit of nearly $500 million in state highway improvements. The cities and county can blame ACHD and ITD for not keeping up with funding road improvements, and ACHD and ITD can blame the cities and county for approving too many subdivisions and constantly changing land-use plans. Being right or wrong in the blame game isn’t going to fix the problem, so why go there?
The success or failure of providing adequate public facilities in Ada County depends creating regional cooperation. And we have to do it NOW!
Given the hole we have dug, it is going to take time and discipline to patch up our roadway infrastructure, but at least we know what we need to do. An effective alliance will cooperatively do the following:
1. Agree on the local roadway Capital Improvement Plan including priority ranking for funding for roadway improvement projects.
2. Set Impact Fees based on the Capital Improvement Plan and the setting of boundaries for fee collection and spending.
3. Develop a cumulative effects monitoring and reporting program.
4. Advocate for Impact Fee authority for the State Highway system.
5. Limit subdivision approvals where inadequate roadway capacity exists unless mitigated by the Developer.
For those fearful of the triumph of process over purpose or bureaucratic bungling with this new alliance, rest assured that the alliance does not create another layer of government. The alliance is simply a collaborative agreement under existing authority. ACHD efficiency for road construction and road maintenance remains intact and unchanged.
I know that I am not alone when I say that Sherry Huber is to be commended for her courageous statements and her willingness to express a sense of urgency in getting this done. Cooperation and the sharing of power doesn’t grab headlines like a good fight, but we have the Broncos and Vandals to fill that void. Here’s to regional cooperation!