Salt Lake County's decision Wednesday to build a much-needed jail in the suburbs is unfortunate. In the end, it could cost taxpayers greatly, harm the image of South Salt Lake City and add needless delays to the construction of a facility that is desperately needed.
The best site for a new county jail remains in downtown Salt Lake City, near where the current jail sits. There, the county would find no opposition and easy access to a consolidated courts complex the state plans to build two blocks away. But county officials have stubbornly refused to seriously consider that option.Instead, county commissioners voted to purchase options on a 30-acre site at 825 W. 3300 South - an unincorporated area just outside South Salt Lake's limits. No doubt, the county could build and operate a successful facility there. But the location isn't the best as far as taxpayers are concerned.
Located just off a main ramp of I-15, this is prime, undeveloped industrial land. Much of the area remains stigmatized by the hazardous tailings that were removed from a nearby 76-acre lot - the site of the old Vitro plant.
But the contamination is long gone and the area is slowly rebounding. Huge, tax-generating businesses - the kind hungry for easy freeway access and central location - are likely to move in, similar to the popular warehouse-style department store already located nearby.
But a jail would remove the land from tax rolls and might scare away other lucrative businesses. These effects would be felt in nearby South Salt Lake, a city still seething from having been chosen as the site of the Oxbow Jail.
Of all locations, one near South Salt Lake City seems particularly incendiary. Surely the proposal will draw heated opposition, much as Oxbow did. While residents fight the jail, perhaps taking the county to court over it, the sheriff will have to continue letting criminals go free for lack of cell space. Meanwhile, a year's delay could raise construction costs by 6 percent or more because of inflation and other factors.
And the residents of Salt Lake County will suffer.
On the other hand, if commissioners had chosen to build downtown, they quickly could have worked out a deal that satisfied the joint city and county ownership on the block and started construction of a 1,200-bed facility. The current group of prisoners would have remained undisturbed in the facility on the northeast corner of the block during the project.
No neighbors would have protested. No businesses would have complained. Taxpayers wouldn't have lost any valuable, revenue-producing land. And, eventually, jail personnel would have been spared having to spend hours each day transporting prisoners up and down the freeway.
A downtown jail remains the most logical and economical choice, although construction costs are difficult to determine. City officials commissioned a study that concluded a downtown jail would be cheaper. County officials commissioned one that says the opposite.
Regardless of location, the most important thing is for the county to build a jail quickly. Unfortunately, county commissioners seem intent on choosing the path of greatest resistance.