From Deseret News archives:
Draper TRAX vote denied
Grass-roots group plans to appeal judge's ruling
Third District Judge Leon Dever sided with Draper and said the CRT group is opposing a city resolution, not a law, and a referendum would apply only in allowing voters to reject legislation that has been adopted.
"This matter before the court is based neither on a state law nor local law, it is based upon Draper City's Resolution 06-71, which 'merely expresses the City Council's preference of a certain light-rail extension,"' Dever wrote.
Because of that, he added in the five-page ruling, "The referendum's basic validity having failed, the issue of the sufficiency of the number of voters on the referendum is therefore moot."
The location of the TRAX line has been debated among Draper residents and elected officials for over a year and a half now. The Utah Transit Authority and the city studied two options for a light-rail route that would traverse the city — one that would run on former Union Pacific Railroad tracks that were purchased as a right-of-way by UTA in 1993 and another on State Street, along I-15.
The majority of Draper residents who attended an open house and public hearings preferred the latter alignment. The Union Pacific tracks cut through low-density neighborhoods.
Draper's City Council voted unanimously in November 2006 for the Union Pacific route. Opponents then filed for a voter referendum to take the issue to a citywide vote.
But after collecting signatures in a petition drive, the group was short of the required 1,526 needed to put the issue on the ballot. CRT filed suit, accusing the city of wrongfully dismissing 122 signatures.
Dever's ruling did not address whether CRT had enough signatures.
"I'm shocked he would rule that way," said Summer Pugh, a CRT member and former Draper mayoral candidate. "It's definitely the right of the citizens to vote on this route."
Pugh believes that the City Council's vote was a legislative action, and the referendum was against a legislative issue.
"Every time they've voted on this route, they use a resolution," she said of the City Council. "They've skirted their legislative duties. I'm shocked this judge would go along with that."
A copy of the ruling was mailed to both parties Monday.
Draper's attorney Doug Ahlstrom said that although the city agrees with the sanctity of the referendum process, "this was not a matter that the process applied to."
"I am happy that the judge has ruled in this way," he added. "He's upholding state law."
Ahlstrom said he is prepared to keep debating the issue through the court system.
E-MAIL: astowell@desnews.com
