Legacy vital to Davis

FARMINGTON — Davis County won't be able to compete economically with its neighbors to the south without Legacy Parkway, county leaders say.

Traffic comes to a standstill at peak times — a situation that makes it nearly impossible for Davis County leaders to lure big business, said Wilf Sommerkorn, the county's economic development director.

"We are always competing with Salt Lake County and Utah County to try and get businesses to come north of Salt Lake and locate so that people can come work there," Sommerkorn said.

"If they see it's extremely congested going north and difficult to get people back and forth and their goods and services back and forth, then we think they may say, 'We're not going to locate north of Salt Lake, we're going to stay in the Salt Lake area.' "

If built, the 14-mile highway will run near the eastern edge of the Great Salt Lake in southern Davis County and give travelers an alternative. UDOT officials are optimistic they can begin construction as soon as spring 2006 and complete it by late 2008 or early 2009.

UDOT already started building the highway in November 2001, but construction was halted after the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily shut down the project after a lawsuit raised environmental questions.

"I'm hopeful the Legacy project will be completed in my lifetime, and I'm getting older every day," Davis County Commissioner Dannie McConkie said. "Legacy is something that was probably needed 10 years ago."

Davis County's population is booming, and the traffic grows every year, said Chris Dallin, president and CEO of the Davis Chamber of Commerce. The population is expected to nearly double to almost 500,000 residents by 2035.

Half of those residents work in other counties, leaving freeways clogged at peak hours, Dallin said.

"Through Davis, you've got one way, period," Dallin said.

"We need more of a reprieve. It's really easy for Salt Lake County and Rocky Anderson to say, 'Oh we don't need it' now that he has I-215 and the beltway and all those other things around Salt Lake. But we've got one way; we've got to have more than one way."

That means cargo is sitting undelivered on clogged freeways and residents are wasting time sitting when they can be doing things more

productive for the local economy, Dallin said.

"Time is money, right?" he said.