UDOT bulldozing homes to make way for freeway construction

WEST VALLEY CITY — Bailey Sanchez and her mother are living in a demolition zone.

The Utah Department of Transportation gave them until May 8 to move out. The week after that, UDOT plans to tear down the house they've lived in for 22 years to make way for new power lines going in prior to construction of the Mountain View Corridor.

UDOT did offer them — along with 44 other homeowners in the area — fair market value for their homes. But in a recession, fair is relative, according to the homeowners.

Sanchez said they got about 18 percent less than their seven-bedroom, three-bathroom home is worth, even in a recession. But they had never even thought of moving before UDOT came knocking at their door.

"I'm heartbroken," she said. "I've been in this house since I was 6 months old. We would've lived here forever."

They're one of the last families on Bills Drive to leave the area, and UDOT has already begun tearing down homes where their neighbors lived.

"I come home every day and there's another house gone," Sanchez said.

Of the 45 homes that stand in the way of making the 35-mile freeway a reality, UDOT has reached an agreement with the occupants of 43 of them. The remaining two are struggling with finances as they are upside-down in their mortgages, said UDOT's Mountain View Corridor project director Teri Newell.

"It's difficult any time you're trying to move someone out of their home. It's always an emotional issue for them," she said Friday.

Very few cases end up in court, but when they do, Newell said the process is beneficial in establishing the value of a property.

Kyle Harding bought his home on Bills Drive in 2007, at the height of the housing market. He has since had to take a second mortgage on the property and when UDOT came around notifying occupants of the easement, his renters moved out, leaving him without a payment for four months. UDOT has listed Harding's property for condemnation and he now has to settle the deal in court.

"I knew it was a possibility that they'd build a road there, but I wasn't anticipating the market would crash," Harding said Friday. He understands the need for UDOT to relocate utilities now, to save them millions down the road, but he says his lenders would take $10,000 more than what UDOT is offering him. And he doesn't have it.