Nineteen and a half acres on the Garden City Greenbelt just got the label “surplus,” and the agency that owns the salt shed is also the one that controls the street out front. Civic & Policy walks the sale sequence and the Oct. 26 hearing on what can go there.
The Market has Caldwell going from no Fred Meyer to two by 2028, on a road ITD is busy widening. And The Bench heads to Pullman, where the home coach used to catch passes on the Blue.
ACHD puts its riverfront yard up for sale in Garden City
The Ada County Highway District (ACHD) just took the first step toward selling 19.5 acres of Boise River Greenbelt frontage, and the first buyers in line are the neighbors. On Oct. 14, the ACHD Board of Commissioners voted to declare its old Garden City property surplus — the maintenance yard, an office complex and a multistory salt shed off Adams Street (BoiseDev, Oct. 15). ACHD's staff report puts fair market value at $34,496,000.
The sequence, as laid out by ACHD Chief of Staff Shari Knauss: adjacent owners get first right of refusal at a price no lower than fair market value. If none of them buys, the land goes to a sealed-bid public auction, with that same $34.5 million as the minimum bid. Only if the neighbors pass does ACHD open things up to commercial buyers, with property tours and a page at achdidaho.org/adamsproperty. ACHD keeps running the yard until summer 2027, even after a sale.
Before any of that settles, Garden City wants a plan on the books. The city is drafting the Heron Commons Specific Area Plan, covering about 34 acres beside the Greenbelt, the ACHD land included. BoiseDev reports it was ACHD's sale plans that prompted the whole thing. At a late-September hearing the council took testimony, left the hearing open, and made no decision, so staff can fold in requested changes and the public can keep talking. It comes back Oct. 26.
Under the draft, 25 percent of the gross area would have to be publicly accessible open space, where today the requirement is zero. Planning and zoning floated two buffers between the existing Waterfront District and Heron Commons: a 15-foot setback with a 45-foot height cap, or a 30-foot setback with a 72-foot one. The public and council members said they'd take the 45-foot version. Testimony also asked for a traffic impact study.
Adams Street is ACHD's to decide. Development Director Jenah Thornborrow laid out three ways to connect 37th Street, and ACHD is weighing turning Adams into a collector street for cars. Mayor Bill Jacobs said residents would rather the Adams connection carry only bikes, pedestrians and emergency vehicles, and he plans to ask ACHD to restrict it if the plan passes — while conceding, as BoiseDev reported, "but ultimately, it's their jurisdiction." One agency sells the land and sets the street.
If you live in Garden City, the hearing is still open, and Oct. 26 at the council meeting is where testimony actually counts toward the plan. If you walk or ride the Greenbelt, the yard stays put until summer 2027. And for anyone tracking how this riverfront corner fills in, the order is locked: adjacent owners act first, and an auction only happens if they pass. Live near Adams Street? Reply and tell us what you want that connection to carry — a real person reads every one.
Caldwell goes from zero Fred Meyers to two by 2028
More than $100 million is what Fred Meyer and developer Westland Development put on the table Monday for Karcher Commons in Caldwell. The site is about 60 acres at the northeast corner of Karcher Rd. and Indiana Ave. Karcher Rd. is Idaho 55, and a Fred Meyer store with a fuel station will anchor the retail. Opening is expected in 2028. Caldwell has no Fred Meyer today. By 2028 it's scheduled to have two.
The first one is already going up. At Highway 20/26 and Middleton Rd., Fred Meyer's first Caldwell store — the valley's eighth — is under construction for a late January 2027 opening. It was announced in June 2025 as a 155,000-square-foot store carrying about 250 jobs. Karcher Commons would be the second Caldwell store and the ninth in the Treasure Valley. Caldwell Mayor Eric Phillips kept it short in Monday's announcement, per BoiseDev: “We are excited to welcome a second Fred Meyer to Caldwell.”
Karcher Commons dates to December 2023, when the Caldwell City Council approved it unanimously and the site was a large vacant lot north of Highway 55 between Indiana and Florida avenues. The 62-acre approval covered 20 commercial lots plus 336 multifamily units and townhome-style rentals, commercial first. As recently as May, no grocer had been named and no grocery permits filed; a Colliers associate would only say talks were underway. Monday answered that.
Grocery is doubling up on one road. Albertsons confirmed in August it will build a store of about 60,000 square feet at The Charles Marketplace, the northwest corner of Karcher Rd. and Lake Ave., targeted for fall 2027. We flagged that one back in August. ITD, meanwhile, is widening Karcher Rd. to four lanes between Middleton and Farmway roads. Kroger owns Fred Meyer, and Albertsons is seeking $8 billion from Kroger over their failed merger — so the two names share a road and a lawsuit.
Water is the piece nobody's settled. At its Oct. 5 council meeting, BoiseDev reported, Caldwell noted it hasn't installed a new well in six years, and the Karcher Commons well sits further off because the developer is still deciding where to put it. A Verbena Ranch well is expected online in early 2027. Where the Karcher Commons well goes is the next thing to watch on Karcher Rd.
THE TRAILHEAD: The guy coaching Washington State on Saturday used to catch passes on the Blue. Boise State is 5-1, No. 21, and coming off a bye, and it plays at a 1-6 team led by a former Bronco. Kickoff is 4 p.m. Mountain at Martin Stadium in Pullman, on USA Network. If you tune in for Boise identity more than depth charts, that's your hook: a familiar face on the wrong sideline, and a line that reads blowout.
Kirby Moore is in his first season in Pullman, named the program's 36th head coach last December after three years coordinating Missouri's offense. He played receiver on the Blue, a teammate for a stretch of his older brother, former Bronco quarterback Kellen Moore. His offensive coordinator, Matt Miller, is also a former Boise State assistant. The reunion is real. The record is rough. Washington State is 1-6 and 0-3 in the Pac-12, off a 48-30 loss at Oregon State where it turned to quarterback Owen Eshelman and watched receiver Branden Ganashamoorthy go for 11 catches, 147 yards and a touchdown in defeat.
Boise State is favored by 13.5, moneyline -600, total 51.5. Washington State is 5-2 against the spread, 3-1 on the road, while Boise State is 3-3. A 1-6 team that keeps covering the number is a different Saturday than its record suggests.
The Broncos win by holding the ball and the clock. Dylan Riley entered the week of Oct. 16 as the nation's leading rusher, 127 carries for 835 yards and six touchdowns. Boise State leads the country in time of possession at 36:08 a game. Maddux Madsen went 17 of 21 for 244 yards and two scores in the Pac-12 opener against Utah State. And the special teams carry quietly: Canaan Moore is 9 of 10 on field goals, 30 of 30 on extra points, and punter Oscar Doyle leads the Pac-12 at 43.8 yards a kick.
Spencer Danielson is 29-9 and chasing win No. 30, the only Pac-12 coach on the Dodd Trophy midseason list. He kept Monday's press conference short, per the Idaho Press: “We're in the dogfight of the season, we're going to practice here, we're going to grind here.” On the seven players listed out before Fresno State — among them lineman Carson Rasmussen, linebacker Logan Brantley, and receivers Rasean Jones, Cam Bates and Darren Morris — Danielson told the Idaho Press only that some returned to practice over the bye: “I feel good about a lot of those guys being back. Some of them might not be, and it's next man up.” The Pac-12 availability report lands Wednesday. This is the eighth meeting and the first as Pac-12 foes, and Washington State leads the series 5-2, including a 47-44 triple-overtime win in Pullman in 2017.
The prisoners cut the stone for their own walls
The men locked inside cut the stone for their own walls. This is the Old Idaho Penitentiary in east Boise. They quarried the sandstone from the Table Rock area nearby and hauled it back to build the place that held them. Chew on that one a second.
Construction began on the Fourth of July, 1870. First cell house went up in 1872, and it took its first 11 inmates from the Boise County Jail. Territorial Prison for a stretch; after Idaho became a state in 1890, the Idaho State Penitentiary. Over 101 years it held more than 13,000 people. The Idaho State Historical Society counts more than 500 escape attempts, at least 90 of them successful, and about 129 recorded deaths, ten of them executions.
One prisoner was there for nearly half of those 101 years. Harry Orchard killed former Idaho Gov. Frank Steunenberg with a bomb at his gate in Caldwell on Dec. 30, 1905. His confession set up the 1907 Boise trial of union leader Big Bill Haywood, with William E. Borah prosecuting and Clarence Darrow helping the defense. Haywood walked. Orchard pleaded guilty, drew a death sentence that got commuted to life, and spent nearly 50 years at the penitentiary. He died in the prison hospital at 88, buried at Morris Hill on April 19, 1954.
The end came hard. Riots over living conditions in 1971 and 1973. Inmates moved to a new state prison south of Boise, and the penitentiary closed in December 1973. It landed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, and the Historical Society runs it now as a museum. Drive by it. It's still there.
How to Visit
📍 2445 Old Penitentiary Rd., east Boise, near Table Rock. Winter hours are noon to 5 p.m. daily, last admission 4 p.m. Adults $9, seniors 60-plus $7, ages 6-12 $5, under 6 free; guided tours run $2 extra.
Mind the October trap. The site is closed to daytime visitors Thursday Oct. 29 through Saturday Oct. 31 for Fright Nights, which run 7 to 11 p.m. on Friday the 30th (recommended 13-plus, anyone under 18 needs an adult) and Saturday the 31st (18-plus, photo ID at the door). Admission is $30, last entry 9 p.m., tickets online and nonrefundable, no masks or prop weapons. The Oct. 24-25 overnight Paranormal Investigation is sold out; Night Tours return Nov. 13 and Nov. 20, 6 to 10 p.m.
Harry Orchard did nearly 50 years inside — and spent a good chunk of them as a trustee living outside the walls, which is a sentence that only makes sense in a prison.
That's the one you tell at dinner.
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