Draper denies TRAX referendum

A referendum application that would have allowed Draper residents to vote on the location of a TRAX line in their city has been denied.

Citizens for Responsible Transportation, the group that filed the referendum, was shy just 122 signatures, and the city denied the petition Friday. The group plans to appeal for a recount, but they're still expecting to be short about 100 signatures.

"It's a shame," said Summer Pugh, a CRT member who ran for mayor of Draper in 2005. "We surely believe there are better options. But we'll remember this at the polls."

The local activist group formed late last year, in opposition to a proposed light-rail line that cuts through low-density neighborhoods and runs parallel to the popular Porter Rockwell trail. That TRAX line would also run on former Union Pacific Railroad tracks, which were purchased as a right-of-way by the Utah Transit Authority in 1993.

But after a year of studies, the Draper City Council voted unanimously in November 2006 for the route, which would hook past City Hall, 1300 East, go along Highland Drive and end at South Mountain.

Opponents of the line include many neighbors who live along the rail corridor. They had pushed for an alternate alignment on State Street, along I-15.

After the council's vote, CRT pushed for a referendum to take the issue to a citywide election. State requirements included collecting 1,566 signatures of registered voters. Pugh said her group collected 1,754, but not all of those were certified registered voters.

The Salt Lake County and Utah County Elections Offices reviewed the petition signatures, since part of Draper boundaries extend into the neighboring county.

The total number of certified signatures was 1,444, which was insufficient to allow the referendum to go forward, Draper city recorder Kathy Montoya wrote in a letter to Pugh.

Pugh said that hundreds more signatures could have been collected during the petition drive, if they hadn't been due during the holiday season.

"It wasn't getting the signatures. It was the time of year," Pugh said. "It got a valiant effort from hundreds of people who got out in the middle of the Christmas season."

"We're not going to let it die," she added. "This is a huge issue that affects the entire community. We're not going to forget that Draper pushed this back into the Christmas season and had no respect for our time."

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