From Deseret News archives:
Davis group aims to revive Legacy Parkway project
They want Legacy Parkway now. Environmentalist groups and leaders from other counties have derailed the project too long, they say.
"Please stop. You have done enough already," Layton resident Clay Stucki told Legacy Parkway opponents at a press conference Monday. "Surely there must be some highway project in your home county or your home state that needs your attention. Davis County doesn't need anymore of your help."
But opponents say Legacy Parkway affects not only Davis residents. Everyone up and down the Wasatch Front should have a say in the planning process because the road will affect the entire state, said Marc Heileson of the Utah Sierra Club.
"Everyone who files a tax return in the state of Utah is paying for that," Heileson said. "We are all in this together."
Utah Department of Transportation director John Njord told the Deseret Morning News the estimated cost of the project has risen to at least $570 million, more than $100 million above the previous cost estimate.
The cost increase is partly due to the three-year-delay of the project imposed by the courts after Legacy Parkway opponents filed a lawsuit citing environmental flaws in UDOT's plan.
Legacy Parkway supporters said it is time to move on and build a second transportation option for Davis County commuters. By forming the group Utahns for the Legacy Parkway, supporters hope they can get the project back on track.
"It's unfair to the citizens of Utah for such a small group to continually delay the project because of their views," West Point Mayor John Petroff said. "Their positions demonstrate an obvious lack of concern for the health, safety and welfare of Davis County residents."
If built, the 14-mile segement of the Legacy Highway will run near the eastern edge of the Great Salt Lake in Davis County. 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.
Earlier this month, the Sierra Club and Utahns for Better Transportation unveiled their alternative to the Legacy Parkway. The proposal pushes mass transit options first but then seeks to extend Redwood Road from I-215 north to Parrish Lane at I-15.
But Utahns for Legacy Parkway said the Redwood Road alternative negatively affects the property surrounding the road. Several homes will be displaced, and communities would be split down the middle with the road alignment, said Wilf Sommerkorn, Davis County director of community and economic development.
Both groups argue their plans are better for the environment. The Sierra Club says their alternative will affect only 12 acres of wetlands.
Utahns for Better Transportation say Legacy Parkway will stop development from creeping closer to the Great Salt Lake. Not all the land along the Legacy alignment is wetlands. Legacy Parkway will serve as the "line in the sand" between developable land and nature preserve, Sommerkorn said.
"It's developable property," Sommerkorn said. "If Legacy doesn't go there, housing development will, and the cities can't stop it."
E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com
