Vote likely tonight on closing Holladay Boulevard

HOLLADAY — A petition signed by 400 residents, urging the city to close the southern portion of Holladay Boulevard, has prompted the Holladay City Council to call a special meeting on the matter.

The council is expected to vote tonight, in the 5:30 p.m. session, on whether to shut down Holladay Boulevard south of 6200 South — creating a dead-end beneath I-215 at the border with Salt Lake County.

That action, if approved, would be intended to prevent developer Richard Beckstrand from using the road as a secondary access for the six-story, 100,000-square-foot office building (Old Mill Corporate Center III) he is constructing on Salt Lake County land southeast of the city's boundary.

Local residents are concerned that if 400 of the building's workers use the access — making an estimated 1,200 trips out of the complex each day, according to Beckstrand — that traffic will clog Holladay Boulevard and lead to safety hazards.

"This thing is bogging the city down," acting Holladay City Manager Randy Fitts said of the long-debated issue. "We're trying to do other things. The file on 6200 South (and Holladay Boulevard) is getting so full that we need to come to some kind of conclusion, do something and move on."

Steve Kohlert, who spearheaded the petition effort, said he felt the council "needed an actionable item to which they could respond."

"There's obviously a large number of citizens who are very concerned about any increase in traffic along the streets of Holladay," he said.

In granting approval of the project, Salt Lake County ordered Beckstrand to have those 400 workers use the back entrance and exit at the southern end of Holladay Boulevard. The county's primary concern was that if all of the office complex's traffic exited onto neighboring 3000 East in the evening rush hour, that road would become jammed and jeopardize safety.

If the city does close the road, Beckstrand has threatened to prohibit local residents from crossing his land on foot or bicycles to access the nearby foothills.

One question has been whether or not the city has the legal authority to close the road.

Holladay city attorney Craig Hall on Wednesday declined to tell the Deseret Morning News what advice he had given, or would give, to the City Council prior to today's meeting. He said his legal opinion is a private matter between himself and his client, the city.

But Bob Anderson, a local attorney who has advised the residents who wish to see the road closed, said the city does have that ability.