Pleasant View? Jacklin Family’s Interstate Exit Plan Would Create Traffic Nightmare, Nearby Businesses Say

There’s a turf war roaring between the Jacklin family and its neighbors. And it has the sound of interstate traffic.

Business owners north of Interstate 90 on Pleasant View Road say the Jacklins want to redirect exiting traffic onto the Jacklins’ 400 acres north of the interstate.

The move, they believe, will cause traffic to skirt the property of 20 landowners north of them, who are included in plans to pay for the widening and development of Pleasant View.

The Jacklin family, which sold its seed company to J.R. Simplot Co., more than a week ago, has plans to change the exit and entrance ramps at Pleasant View and I-90, requiring all cars to pass through its land before exiting west onto the interstate, according to plans submitted to the Idaho Transportation Department.

That means the traffic will stack up along the quarter-mile strip of Pleasant View, creating havoc for businesses, said John Guell of Watson & Associates, which owns almost 200 acres directly north of the Jacklin property.

“After they get through the confusion of getting through the lights, they’ll probably get back on the interstate and go home,” Guell said.

“We’re real concerned about the traffic,” he said.

Currently, landowners along Pleasant View expect to pay about $1.2 million to widen the road and add a traffic signal at the Fifth Avenue intersection as part of a city local improvement district project.

Some say it’s unfair for them to foot the bill for improving the streets, while the Jacklins are seeking state and federal funding to build access to their land.

“Is the Jacklin property being assessed anything for the (local improvement district) property?” Mike Connolly, owner of the Suntree RV Park on Idaline Road, asked the Post Falls City Council Tuesday evening.

The Jacklins are not, the City Council responded.

“Then, as my kids would say, ‘What’s wrong with this picture?”’ he asked.

Connolly said he objects to paying for the improvements when his business isn’t close to either the Jacklin property or the other property owners.

But the Jacklin company and the city say they would have studied it since the company announced it would develop the 400 acres. They said they knew the development would put a strain on the two-lane Pleasant View with only a four-way stop at Fifth Avenue.

Changing the exit ramp means less congestion, said Pat Leffel, head of the Jacklin’s Riverbend Commerce Park.

“It’s to eliminate that serious safety problem,” he said. “It’s still hard for me to understand how it’s going to affect property owners.”

Any traffic that travels west along Jacklin Road would pass by the Watson & Associates property, he added.

The Jacklins plan to seek state and federal funding and kick in money to pay for the almost $2 million plans, he said.

Leffel declined to comment on the exact amount, saying it depended on other owners on their property. “We’ll pay our fair share,” he said.

The Jacklins would not have access to their land as the plans lay now, said Bill Melvin, Post Falls city engineer.

The only road, a gravel road with trailers parked in the entrance just a few hundred yards north of the exit ramp, would need an extra traffic light. And that would mean three lights within a 3,000-foot strip.

“The primary purpose is access to the land,” Melvin said.

“It’s a much safer intersection.”

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