8th Street Improvements

Thank you for visiting the 8th Street Improvements, State to Union Concept Design Virtual Open House. Here you will find information about the project’s background, what we’ve heard so far from the community, and the revised draft concepts. At the end, you will be able to provide feedback on those concepts.

You can continue scrolling down to browse through the full content of the website or toggle to different sections using the navigation bar above. If you need printed materials mailed to you or need to make other arrangements to answer your questions, please call 208-387-6100 | TTY 1-800-377-3529 and we will be happy to help you.

This open house will be open through December 1st, 2022.

ACHD, the City of Boise and its urban renewal agency, Capital City Development Corporation (CCDC) are collaborating to extend improvements on 8th Street from State Street to Union Street. This is our second public outreach effort for this project. For more project background information, click  here  and to see the results of our first round of outreach click  here 

ACHD, CCDC, and the City of Boise initially selected Concept A as the preferred concept after January 2022 outreach showed broad support for this option. After public testimony in opposition to this decision at the first adoption hearing in April 2022, the project team collected additional data, performed more analyses, and met with stakeholders.

Following these meetings, a revised Concept A was presented for adoption in May 2022. After public testimony expressing additional concerns about the revised Concept A, the ACHD Commission directed staff to evaluate additional concepts and options to address the concerns expressed at the hearing.

In response to these site-specific concerns raised by property owners and ACHD Commission direction, the project team prepared another modified version of Concept A, which only uses 8th Street, and two new concepts, Concepts D and E, which use 9th Street, as well as 8th Street. The map above shows the areas affected by the new concepts. We are looking for your feedback on these concepts from Franklin Street to Union Street.

The ACHD Commission approved Concept A for the State Street to Franklin Street section of 8th Street at its November 9th meeting. There were no new alternatives for this section and all concepts presented here will be compatible with Concept A in this section. Some small changes were made to Concept A in this section along the St. Michael's Episcopal Cathedral frontage in response to specific comments raised by St. Michael's.

Based on public feedback, the original Concepts B and C are not currently under additional consideration.

Based on community feedback and input from ACHD, CCDC, and the City of Boise, three concepts are under consideration.

Raised bike lanes on 8th Street with parallel parking on one side.

Raised southbound bike lane on 9th Street from Franklin Street to Union Street with parallel parking retained on one side. Raised northbound bike lane on 8th Street from Franklin Street to Union Street with parallel parking retained on one side.

Concepts D & E differ based on which side of the street the bike lane and parking are provided on 9th Street.

Continue scrolling to learn more about each concept and tell us what you think about them.

The following evaluation matrix compares the three options:

The graph below summarizes the number of on-street parking spaces that would be replaced by protected bike lanes in each concept. Concept A (Modified) replaces about 29 spaces, while Concepts D & E replace about 27 spaces each.

Based on public outreach, the following changes have been made to Concept A since it was originally presented to the public in January 2022:

• The northbound raised bike lane has been continued through the Fort Street to Union Street section, which resulted in on-street parking being removed from the west side of the road. This change was in response to survey results indicating most (i.e., 53%) respondents indicating the painted bike lane was a concern to them.
• On-street parking was switched to the west side of 8th Street from Hays Street to Fort Street.
• Fence and landscape barriers will be on either side of the raised bike lane in front of St. John's Cathedral (see image below), with designated crossing locations across from the entry stairs, to reduce potential conflicts between people biking and school children being dropped off for school.

• Improves biking conditions
• Provides the most direct bike route into downtown
• Maintains existing street trees and other landscaping
• Provides additional buffer space for people walking on the east side
• Reduces the number of lanes people have to cross across 8th Street
• The proposed modifications in front of St. John's Cathedral will reduce potential conflicts between people entering/exiting parked cars and people biking in the southbound bike lane
• Consistent with recently approved Concept A from State Street to Franklin Street

• Removes approximately 29 on-street parking spaces
• Slight increase in motor vehicle delay at the Fort Street and Hays Street intersections (though it will still be within ACHD’s standards)
• People biking southbound will have to cross two Boise Co-Op Driveways

• Improves biking conditions
• Maintains existing street trees and other landscaping
• Provides a northbound left-turn lane on 8th Street at Fort Street
• Does not require people biking southbound to cross 9th Street at Franklin Street
• Maintains motor vehicle capacity on 9th Street

• Requires out-of-direction travel to reach 8th Street in downtown for people east of 9th Street
• Removes approximately 27 parking spaces
• Slight increase in motor vehicle delay at the 8th Street/Hays Street intersection (though it will still be within ACHD’s standards)
• Requires people biking southbound to cross one Boise Co-Op Driveway

• Improves biking conditions
• Maintains existing street trees and other landscaping
• Provides additional buffer space for people walking on both sides of 8th Street and 9th Street
• Maintains motor vehicle capacity on 9th Street
• Provides a northbound left-turn lane on 8th Street at Fort Street
• Does not require people biking southbound to cross a Boise Co-Op Driveway

• Requires out-of-direction travel to reach 8th Street in downtown for people east of 9th Street
• Removes approximately 27 parking spaces
• Slight increase in motor vehicle delay at the 8th Street/Hays Street intersection (though it will still be within ACHD’s standards)
• Requires people biking southbound to cross 9th Street at Franklin Street to get to 8th Street downtown

Please take a moment to provide us some additional feedback and information. Thanks!

Brooke Green, Senior Transportation Planner

208.387.6100

TTY: 1.800.377.3529

 projects@achdidaho.org 

 www.achdidaho.org  

Zach Piepmeyer, Project Manager

Capital City Development Corporation

 info@ccdcboise.com 

208-384-4264