Road not ready, but drivers are

PROVO — Five years and three court rulings later, workers are putting the final touches on a street that will connect Provo's Canyon Road down a steep hill to University Avenue near the Riverwoods shopping area.

Residents are so anxious to use the new stretch that starts as 4525 North at the top of the hill and winds down to 4800 North at the bottom that some began driving on it recently, even though city engineer Nick Jones said it won't be done until mid-July.

"I think people started to say, 'Wow, where'd that road come from?"' Provo Mayor Lewis Billings said. "People were driving on it so we've secured it and we're trying to keep people off it until it's finished."

The road may open next month, but it could take a lot longer before a jury decides how much Provo will pay the owners of a 2-acre piece of land taken by eminent domain to make way for the new street.

Provo began construction of 4800 North in 2002 before it finished negotiating for that last section of land, which belonged to Newell Johnson and a partnership group called Spring Canyon Limited.

The partners felt the land was worth $550,000. The city valued it at $287,000.

Construction ground to a halt when the partners held out and the city tried to take the land by eminent domain. The flap became a campaign issue when Billings was re-elected in 2005.

A court first ruled against the city, saying Provo couldn't use its eminent domain powers because the land technically isn't in Provo. It's on an island of unincorporated Utah County land in the middle of the city.

The dispute went back to court after Provo struck a deal with Utah County: The city would pay for everything if Utah County would use its eminent domain powers to take the land.

This time, a 4th District Court judge the city-county deal was legal, a decision upheld by the Utah Supreme Court in May 2006.

Property values have skyrocketed in Provo over the past five years, making the initial appraisals obsolete. The Supreme Court's ruling allowed the city to restart work on the road, but it didn't resolve the question of how much it would have to pay the landowners.

The legal process for determining the value is simple.

First, to allow Provo to continue with the road, a court required the city to deposit in the court what it thought the land was worth. Utah County, on behalf of Provo, deposited $600,000 with the court in August 2006.