Legacy connector dropped

The Utah Department of Transportation is scrapping plans for a northward connector road from the Legacy Parkway through Farmington after hearing complaints from more than 350 residents during a public hearing Tuesday.

The hearing was before the Farmington Planning Commission, which denied a request by UDOT to change the city's transportation plan to accommodate the connector road. The decision was made about 11 p.m. on Tuesday.

UDOT said Wednesday that it would not appeal the rejection.

"We're not going to pursue this any further now," said UDOT spokeswoman Bethany Eller.

Instead, the agency plans to spend the next several months studying growth and traffic projections in the Farmington area to see if there are other alternatives to the connector road. The connector was proposed to link the Legacy Parkway with a northern extension of the highway, Legacy North.

The connector would not have been built for at least 20 to 30 years, UDOT officials said. The agency was requesting a change in the general plan so it could buy properties and protect the future route for the road from development pressures.

But residents were overwhelmingly opposed to the idea. The route would have impacted several dozen homes and at least one business in the west Farmington area, residents said. They also complained that the threat of a road in the area — even 20 to 30 years away — would impact their property values.

Travis Tait, a Farmington resident, said Wednesday that he was pleased with the decision by the planning commission to deny UDOT's request. But he still intends to keep tabs on the issue.

"That's good to see that the city stood up for the residents and keeping the community together," Tait said. "Now we'll just keep following up with it."

Farmington Mayor Scott Harbertson said he wants UDOT to find a better solution. "We'd love to have a proposal that has a lot less impact than this one to residents."

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E-mail: nwarburton@desnews.com