Justices to hear Draper TRAX case

DRAPER — A Draper activist group fighting TRAX will have its case heard by the Utah Supreme Court.

Last Friday, the high court decided to keep the matter, which revolves around whether or not residents can vote on the light-rail line through a referendum process.

Citizens for Responsible Transportation (CRT) filed for an appeal with the Supreme in August after a 3rd District Court judge in April ruled against them.

Judge Leon Dever said in April that CRT is opposing a city resolution, not a law, and a referendum would apply only in allowing voters to reject legislation that has been adopted. Because of that, Dever said in a five-page ruling that the issue of the amount of signatures is "moot."

CRT, however, hopes Supreme Court justices will now rule if the group collected enough signatures for a voter referendum.

"This is a constitutional issue for us," said Summer Pugh, a CRT leader. "So I guess the question will be decided: Do we get a say or don't we?"

The location of the light-rail route has been debated among Draper residents and elected officials for nearly two years. The Utah Transit Authority and the city studied two options for a TRAX line that would cut through 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.

Although the Union Pacific tracks cut through low-density neighborhoods, Draper's City Council voted unanimously in November 2006 for that route. Opponents 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.

The fact that the Supreme Court kept the case and didn't assign it to an appellate court was surprising to group members, Pugh said. Most expected to continue fighting the matter in appellate court.

The Utah Supreme Court in recent years, however, has taken interest in local referendum issues.

In 2005, it heard the referendum case of Sandy activist group Save Our Canyons, which in late 2004 organized a petition drive against a zone change on the large gravel pit at 9400 South and 1000 East. Developers planned to build a mixed-use development with several big-box stores. The group submitted signatures for a referendum that the Sandy recorder initially rejected for having too few signatures.

Save Our Canyons sued the city, went to the state courts with the case and eventually ended up at the Supreme Court, where the high courts ruled that Sandy must hold the referendum.