- 01Countywide ACHD voting arrived two years early; the agency says nobody warned it.
- 02CBH's largest-ever concept, 6,800 homes by Micron, would stay out of Boise.
- 03Boise State and Fresno State, both 4-1, meet Saturday at 8:30 on The CW.
- 04Idaho's 11th governor walked to work from a house built off newspaper plans.
Two Ada County Highway District seats are on the November 3 ballot, and this fall every voter in the county gets a say in both — a change the agency itself says it wasn't told about. Civic & Policy reads the clerk's math on when countywide voting took effect, and lays out the registration-fee question riding the same ballot. On September 8 we told you this cycle would run by district; Corrections carries the fix.
The Market has more than 6,800 homes drawn across I-84 from Micron, on land set to stay outside Boise. The Bench sets up Saturday in Fresno, and Drive-By History closes at a house built off newspaper plans.
Every Ada County voter now picks both highway seats
A change the Ada County Highway District expected in 2028 showed up two years early, and the agency says nobody told it in advance. On November 3, every registered voter in Ada County votes in both open Ada County Highway District (ACHD) races — Sub-District 3 and Sub-District 4 — no matter where you live. Candidates still have to live in the sub-district they run for, but the old district-only ballot is gone. Ada County Elections leans on Idaho Code 40-1404A and Senate Bill 1356: commissioners “are now elected by all registered voters of Ada County and are no longer elected by district,” and party labels stay off the ballot this year.
ACHD's objection is a real one, so let's build it at full strength. The agency read the same bill and expected all of it — countywide voting and partisan races both — to arrive together in 2028. In its statement, ACHD said it “was not notified in advance of this change,” and that its “immediate concern is ensuring clarity for both Ada County voters... as well as the candidates who have invested significant time and resources in seeking public office.” Candidates filed in August expecting district races. If you campaigned for one electorate and woke up running for a county of them, you'd be annoyed too.
Ada County Clerk Trent Tripple told BoiseDev the bill names 2028 only for the partisan switch and sets no separate start date for the countywide part — so the county's legal team read it as live the day the law was, July 1, 2026. Tripple took the heat for the surprise: “We should have communicated better with ACHD and the candidates involved,” he told BoiseDev, and said he took “full responsibility” for the gap. ACHD scheduled a September 17 meeting with the Elections Office. The county's candidate list now runs both races countywide.
Seat 3 covers the northern edges of Boise, Eagle, Garden City and Star. Commission president Miranda Gold, 43, first elected in 2022, faces Sean Sundwall, 53, of Star. Gold told BoiseDev she wants “to continue that trajectory and continue to build relationships with our partner agencies.” Sundwall, an insurance agent, says ACHD's budget has ballooned — 75 percent since 2022, by his count, though BoiseDev's own check of the approved budgets put it at 73.31 percent — and told BoiseDev, “I can't fathom giving more money to ACHD.” Seat 4 is open now that Kent Goldthorpe is stepping away, and five candidates are certified: Chris Campbell, Dave Case, Greg Ferch, Marisa Keith and Joel Meusch.
That same ballot carries ACHD's vehicle registration fee. A yes vote keeps the current fee — $24 for passenger vehicles over seven years old, $36 for three to seven years, $40 for one to two — with no increase, running through December 31, 2046. A no vote lets it lapse at the end of 2028, when its authorization runs out. The fee pulls in about $14 million a year for road and bridge repair, congestion relief and Safe Routes to School, and it only needs a simple majority.
If you live in the county, you're voting both seats and the fee on November 3 — check your sample ballot now, because two races that used to belong to one sub-district each are yours this year. For the rest of us, watch the mechanism: a state law can rewire how your local board gets picked before the board is told. Two seats, every voter, one fee question — and we owe you a correction on our September 8 piece, which is in Corrections.
6,800 homes across the freeway from Micron, outside Boise
About a dozen people showed up to a junior high gym on October 1 to see 6,800 homes drawn on about 1,200 acres, just across I-84 from Micron's campus. CBH Homes calls it Radiance, and it would be the largest project of developer Corey Barton's career — more than twice the homes of Harris Ranch, enough to rival Avimor's 8,000-plus. No application has been filed with Ada County yet. For now it is poster boards in a gym.
What separates it from a standard subdivision is the mix: 3,782 single-family homes and 3,050 apartments, running from estate lots and starter homes to townhomes, with assisted living and retirement communities in the plan. Four named areas — Summit, Horizon, Sunrise and Daybreak Radiance. Add about 460,000 square feet of commercial space anchored by a 23.5-acre shopping center with a grocery store, plus 53.5 acres set aside for two elementary schools and a middle school, all on the West Ada side of the district line that cuts across the site.
The plan also carries nearly 300 acres of open space, roughly 95 of it improved, including a 29-acre park with a community center. The road work is heavy: rebuilding and widening Eisenman Rd. to the interchange, and extending Lake Hazel Rd. across the railroad tracks. CBH land development manager Katie Miller told BoiseDev that Radiance would get its own area-specific plan, the way Harris Ranch does. Entities controlled by Dennis M. Baker and Associates own much of the ground under all of it.
Then there's the jurisdiction question, and it's the one to watch. Radiance is set to stay under Ada County rather than annex into Boise. Mayor Lauren McLean, on the BoiseDev podcast, said the city is studying whether it can afford to extend its limits and services to areas like this, but that study's timing didn't line up with the developer's. Her read on the gap: “When this is built, all those residents will think it's in Boise. Yet the county, with their sheriff and other things, will be expected to service this.”
An application and approval process has to happen before anyone pours a foundation. The scale is what makes this a story now. 6,800 roofs this close to the valley's biggest employer reshape who gets to live near those jobs, and whose services they live under. Been near the Eisenman interchange lately? Reply with what the drive feels like now — a real person reads every one.
THE TRAILHEAD: Boise State and Fresno State both sit 4-1 and 1-0, the best records in the new Pac-12, and they meet Saturday at 8:30 p.m. MT on The CW. The winner goes to 2-0 in league play. That's the night, cleared.
The Broncos earned the stage last weekend. They beat Utah State 37-18 at Albertsons Stadium in front of 34,616, and they didn't make anybody wait: touchdowns on the first three drives — Dylan Riley's 5-yard run, Matt Wagner's 11-yard grab from Maddux Madsen, then Riley again from 33 out. Madsen went 17 of 21 for 244 yards and two scores and ran for 42 more. “You come out on your first three drives with touchdowns, that's going to send a message early,” Madsen told Boise State's Sports Illustrated site.
The defense talked too. Jake Ripp took an interception back 21 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter. The pass rush got home for six sacks, the most since the December 6, 2024 Mountain West title game against UNLV. Boise State led 28-10 at the half, stretched it to 31-10 on Canaan Moore's 43-yard field goal, then let Utah State creep to 31-18. Ben Ford's 11-yard catch from Madsen closed the scoring.
Fresno State gets one chunk of film worth pausing on. Javen Jacobs ran for 139 yards on 10 carries — 13.9 a pop against a front that otherwise owned the night. Receiver Rasean Jones caught five for 88 before leaving hurt; Spencer Danielson said afterward he “is doing OK,” nothing more for Saturday. The streaks ride along as footnotes: 27 straight wins in conference openers, 11 straight over Utah State.
“It's huge to start 1-0,” Danielson told the same site. “West Coast football is back, and it's great opponents week in and week out.” Fresno State arrives on a four-game winning streak. Watch parties are already set at Bert's Brewing in Garden City and at Uncle Bob's Pizza and Voodoo Brewing in Meridian. That leaves one question for Saturday night: whether the run defense that let Jacobs loose holds up in Fresno.
The governor who walked to work from State Street
A woman clipped a house out of the newspaper, and her husband walked to the governor's office from it. The tall Queen Anne at Third and State has the tower and the wraparound porch. Helena Alexander saw a picture in a paper. Floor plans, two stories, all those gables. She followed the clipping. Two carpenters built the wood-frame house on a Table Rock sandstone foundation, and it was done in 1897 for about $3,200. Same year her husband Moses won his first race for mayor of Boise.
Moses Alexander was born in Bavaria in 1853. Boise mayor first. Then he lost the governor's race in 1908 before winning in 1914. He took the oath as Idaho's 11th governor on January 4, 1915, won reelection in 1916, and served through January 6, 1919 — the first practicing Jew elected governor of a U.S. state.
Now the part that sticks. Alexander didn't drive. While he was governor, he walked the three blocks from that State Street porch to the Statehouse. Three blocks. From a house two carpenters built off a newspaper picture, to the governor's office down the road.
The place stayed a home the whole time. Entry hall, parlor, a dining room big enough to dance in, bedrooms upstairs, a bathroom on each floor, a coal furnace feeding radiators in every room and not a lick of insulation. In 1900 the family added that second-floor bay window with the curved stained-glass panes. Daughter Leha married in the house, dinner for sixteen after. Grandson Nathan Alexander sold it to the State of Idaho in 1977. It made the National Register in 1972 and was restored in 2001.
How to Visit
📍 The Alexander House, 304 W. State St., corner of Third and State, about three blocks from the Capitol. The state runs offices and events out of it. Stand on the sidewalk at the corner, look up at that 1900 stained-glass bay, then walk the three blocks west toward the Statehouse. That's the commute a governor once made on foot. Drive by it. It's still there.
Idaho still has no governor's residence, so the house Helena found in the newspaper for $3,200 is where governors still entertain.
That's the one you tell at dinner.
- ●Boise State athletics deficit and the stadium entertainment district — Advisor selection; any ground-lease developer solicitation (watching since 9/15) · Δ 10/1: 2026-10-01: BoiseDev 09-25 - Boise State issued an RFP for an advisor to study a mixed-use district (hotel, conference, event, retail, dining, housing, parking) on ~6 acres of stadium parking east and south of Albertsons Stadium; COO Annie Hightower leads; coordinating with the Greater Boise Auditorium District. NOT COVERED this issue.
- ●WinCo Foods CEO succession — Board names the fourth CEO since the 1985 employee buyout (watching since 10/1) · Δ 10/1: 2026-10-01: WinCo announced 09-29 that CEO Grant Haag (CEO since 2019, 42 years with the company) will retire through May 2027; the board will select a successor, none named (BoiseDev 09-30).
- ●8th Street Phase 2 - Idaho-to-Bannock block — Idaho-to-Bannock block completion (city target November 2026) (watching since 10/1) · Δ 10/1: 2026-10-01: Main-to-Idaho block reopened (First Thursday celebration 10-01) after a concrete redo pushed the finish from Sep 4 to Sep 25 ($2.2M, Guho Construction, BoiseDev 09-11). City schedules the Idaho-to-Bannock block for September to November 2026.
- ●Konala Protein Bowls & Salads - Treasure Valley rollout — Opening date for the downtown Boise or Meridian store (watching since 10/1) · Δ 10/1: 2026-10-01: NOT COVERED. BoiseDev 09-30: Meridian location planned at 3275 N. Eagle Rd. (Kohl's/Hobby Lobby plaza); downtown Boise location off Main in the former Tropical Smoothie Cafe space; franchisee Speedy Foods LLC signed Dec 2025 for 15 Treasure Valley units. No opening dates.
- ●Union Block, 710–722 W. Idaho St. — RFQ closes October 15; contractor selection, repair details and a timeline; the who-pays ruling; the 9th Ci… (watching since 6/23) · Δ 9/29: 2026-09-29: city issued an abatement RFQ; proposals due Oct 15
- 2026-06-26 (Civic & Policy)We said: [Eagle] instituted a full fireworks ban across all of Eagle city limits heading into the July 4 holiday weekend. It’s actually: the June 23 resolution banned fireworks only in the foothills areas Eagle maps as its Wildland-Urban Interface, north of Beacon Light Road between highways 16 and 55 and including the Eagle Bike Park. The rest of the city was not covered (Idaho Press and Idaho News, both June 24).
- 2026-08-28 (Civic & Policy)We said: On the November 3 ballot is the continuation of the $40 vehicle registration fee ($70 for EVs) — no rate hike, roughly $18 to $20 million a year, about 8 percent of the budget. If it fails, the hole opens immediately, in the very budget adopted Wednesday. It’s actually: ACHD's fee is $24, $36 or $40 a year for most passenger vehicles, depending on the vehicle's age, and ACHD's published schedule has no separate EV rate. It raises about $14 million a year. It is authorized through December 31, 2028, so a no vote this November lets it expire at the end of 2028, not immediately (ACHD's ballot-measure page). Our July 31 issue also described it as a flat $40, or $70 for EVs.
- 2026-09-08 (Civic & Policy)We said: The 2026 cycle still runs the old way — same districts, no parties, hold onto that. It’s actually: the Ada County Clerk's office has ruled that the countywide-voting part of Senate Bill 1356 took effect July 1, 2026, so every Ada County voter votes in both ACHD races this November. Only the switch to partisan races waits until 2028. ACHD itself expected all of it to start in 2028 and learned otherwise in mid-September (BoiseDev, September 16; Ada County Elections candidate filings).