UDOT filtering 6,000 comments on West Davis Corridor proposal, already making changes

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Department of Transportation received more than 6,000 comments from the public on its recent proposal to study transportation needs in western Davis County.

The response was more than expected, but officials say each one will be duly considered.

"No decision has been made at this point," said Randy Jefferies, UDOT project manager for the West Davis Corridor Environmental Impact Study. He said the public comment period, which ended Friday, March 25, has been informative and helpful in the ongoing process to "identify a potential corridor with the lowest impact to residents, wetlands, agricultural areas and communities as a whole."

Already, UDOT engineers are making changes on the three proposed routes presented to the public in early February, Jefferies said, adding that the changes "will be visible" to the public when a draft EIS statement is presented early next year.

"We expect people to be concerned and passionate about these things that affect their communities," UDOT spokesman Vic Saunders said Wednesday. "We really don't have a truckload of bulldozers ready to take down houses where we want to build a road."

This was the second time the public was asked to participate in the refining process, the first being in August 2010. However, the recent span of 45 days elicited so many varying opinions on the matter that UDOT had to hire additional to help sort through them all.

In all, approximately 2,700 residents attended UDOT's three public hearings in February at West Point, Farmington and West Haven.

Farmington and Kaysville residents have been the loudest, so to speak, perhaps because there is only one route proposed to run through that area, instead of the three that show up in other areas along the proposed roadway, Jefferies said. Among the most common issues presented to UDOT, he said, were concerns that the proposed highway would divide existing neighborhoods, disturb wetland areas that might be protected by certain laws, disrupt agriculture and farmlands as well as the possibility of increased noise levels in an otherwise undisturbed area.

"There is definitely a broad range of different perspectives," Jefferies said. "UDOT, along with the cities and counties, know there needs to be a transportation corridor out there at some point. … We know there is support for a West Davis Corridor, now we just have to determine the best place for it."