The House and Senate passed a bill that will permit a UTA FrontRunner station in Draper at the site of a 3,000-year-old American Indian village.

Once signed by the governor, HB179, sponsored by Rep. Kerry Gibson, R-Ogden, will permit an exchange of land by the Utah Department of Natural Resources and a group of developers in Draper.

Both pieces of property are located along Union Pacific rail west of I-15. The DNR currently owns land at 13500 South. A group of developers called Whitewater VII Holdings wants that land for a "transit development" and is offering to exchange it for a piece of land at 12800 South.

If the land swap goes through, UTA would require as a condition to Whitewater VII 10 acres of property be given to UTA for the station and platform at 13500 South — even though UTA owns land in Bluffdale at 14600 South. UTA is also considering a stop at state-owned land at 14000 South.

UTA is hesitant about a station in Bluffdale because the City Council there voted against a station. A disadvantage to 14000 South is that the property would require a pedestrian overpass to get passengers onto the platform to board the trains.

"One of the benefits (of the 13500 South property) is that it is closer to Bangerter Highway, and from the research we have done we could get more ridership at a station closer to Bangerter because people would get to it easier," said UTA spokeswoman Carrie Bohnsack-Ware. "Also, it wouldn't be so close to a residential community" that other sites would be.

UTA will make the decision over which site will get the stop in the next few weeks, "subject to the results of future studies respecting the archaeological and cultural impacts," Bohnsack-Ware said.

The Utah Rivers Council has been against the land swap because development of the 13500 South land would encroach on the Jordan River.

The Utah Professional Archeological Council opposes the land swap because it wants to preserve the artifacts, which include housing, from a group of prehistoric Indians from 3,000 years ago.

Utah Open Lands also opposes the land swap because the 13500 South site has been designated as open space.

The bill, which the Utah Senate approved Wednesday morning, doesn't say how the village will be preserved. But the bill's sponsor in the Senate, Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, said that UTA and the developers will be required to follow strict state and federal preservation laws. "It's natural for all citizens to be concerned about our heritage," Bramble said, adding that the bill passed by the Legislature is "permissive," meaning that while the bill now gives the DNR permission to swap land, it doesn't have to.