City plan for frontage road next to Legacy draws fire

The activists who helped delay work on the Legacy Parkway because of environmental concerns are gearing up for a fight with the city of Centerville to protect wetlands adjacent to the new highway.

Centerville, in Davis County along the route for Legacy, wants to build a frontage road west of the highway to link with 180 acres of developable land. If the road is built and land developed, it would destroy hundreds of acres of "high-functioning" wetlands near the Legacy Nature Preserve and Farmington Bay Waterfowl Refuge, according to Marc Heileson with the Sierra Club.

The idea of destroying those wetlands for development is "really playing with fire," Heileson said. "I don't know why anyone would want to do this."

In 2001, the Sierra Club and Utahns for Better Transportation sued to stop construction of Legacy. They felt the state did not do enough study of the environmental impacts of building a road near the Great Salt Lake — one of the "most critical habitat spots for migratory birds in the Western Hemisphere," Heileson said.

The environmental groups won their lawsuit. Work on the road was stopped until UDOT further studied the impact. In 2005, the state settled the lawsuit, and construction began in 2006. The road is scheduled to open in 2008, according to Todd Jensen, Legacy project manager for the Utah Department of Transportation.

"We're moving along quickly," he said.

For similar reasons, the Sierra Club and others also have raised red flags about the proximity of the planned Mountain View Corridor highway to the north side of Utah Lake.

Centerville officials said Friday that no applications have been submitted to develop the 180 acres of land, which is owned by the Horman Family Trust. Horman was fined by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1998 for failure to clean up contaminated land it owned in Salt Lake City.

Without a development plan for the Horman land in Centerville, there is no need yet to build the frontage road, which would connect to 1250 West in Centerville, cross the Legacy Parkway with a UDOT-built overpass, then link with Sheep Road near Farmington.

"When we get to that point, I am certain that Centerville will be more than happy to work with groups that might have concerns," Centerville Mayor Ronald Russell said. "When the road is built, we will have to be in compliance with all applicable laws."

But the environmental groups don't want that road to be constructed.