Utah's first light-rail line will cut through the heart of the Salt Lake Valley. And like anyone about to undergo cardiac surgery, some local government leaders are a little nervous about the whole procedure.
The Utah Transit Authority is working with surgical precision to prep Salt Lake City, South Salt Lake, unincorporated Salt Lake County, Murray, Midvale and Sandy for the implantation of a 151/2-mile commuter rail line through those communities. Some of the patients, like South Salt Lake, have signed their consent forms and are in the operating room, awaiting the inevitable. But others are having second thoughts and mixed emotions about what life will be like after the new transportation artery is installed.Among the most distraught over the coming construction are officials in Midvale. For more than a year they have opposed UTA's plans to build a light-rail maintenance facility at the southern edge of their city, fearing it will be a nuisance to residents and curtail business growth. Sandy officials also have reservations about the rail yard and shop, part of which will be in north Sandy, and have worries about safety, noise, property values and economic impacts. One of Murray officials' biggest interests has been that UTA buy electricity from Murray Power, the city-owned public utility, as light rail passes through the city.
Some of these and other issues must be resolved before UTA can proceed with construction bids. In particular, location of the maintenance facility and alignment of tracks through downtown Salt
Lake City must be settled by early January or the project, set for completion in December 1999, will fall behind schedule.
UTA staff and board members will meet with Midvale officials Wednesday at 2 p.m. at Midvale City Hall to discuss the planned maintenance facility and possible alternatives.
The Salt Lake City Council has agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding with UTA, finalizing the construction schedule and alignment of the line through downtown. But some downtown business owners and at least one outspoken UTA board member are uncomfortable with the planned Main Street route and have delayed approval of the agreements with Salt Lake City by the UTA Board of Directors. Mike Allegra, UTA's director of engineering, said his staff desperately needs the board to make a decision on Main Street alignment at its Dec. 18 meeting.
It is crucial that the UTA board sign an agreement with Salt Lake City because, unlike the other cities on the route, light-rail tracks will be placed in the middle of city streets. Similar agreements with the other communities are desirable but not necessary, according to UTA officials, because UTA owns a railroad corridor through those cities and does not need to install tracks on city streets.
However, UTA does have to work with the cities and individual property owners to acquire land and accesses for the 12 stations and seven proposed park-and-ride lots between 1300 South and the end of the line at 10000 South in Sandy. UTA officials would prefer to sign memorandums of understanding with all of the cities, as it has with South Salt Lake, so that various issues - both major and minor - can be addressed before construction begins rather than causing possible delays once the project is under way.
Bruce Talbot, South Salt Lake's community and economic development director, said the agreement with UTA was a means for his city to have input in a way that doesn't obligate the city financially in the light-rail process. If infrastructure improvements are made as a result of construction, South Salt Lake is obligated to pay only for improvements made over and above the costs of putting back to normal whatever UTA was constructing.
Most pressing at the moment is the maintenance facility, needed to service the light-rail cars. UTA always has planned to build the rail yard on about 20 acres east of State Street at about 8400 South on a combination of Midvale, Sandy and unincorporated Salt Lake County land. UTA owns almost all of the land it needs there.
But Midvale, which owns a right-of-way easement through a portion of the site, is reluctant to surrender an area it feels has a large potential for commercial development, which would bring in sorely needed tax revenue. UTA spokesman Bill Barnes said the agency has offered not to build anything on the State Street frontage portion of the property, allowing for business development there.
The city also worries about residents who would have to put up with the lights and noise from the maintenance facility.
"We've been to the (light rail) maintenance facility in St. Louis and . . . San Diego, and both of those sites are in industrial areas," said Mike Siler, Midvale's city administrator. "Given what they're going to do at that site, it's an industrial usage. We're very concerned not only about people who live in Midvale west of the site but those who live in Sandy and the unincorporated county. We're concerned about noise, lights, a drop in property values.
"Both Midvale's and Sandy's master plans call for the State Street corridor to become an upgraded commercial corridor by placing the maintenance facility there it really sort of cements in perpetuity an industrial usage on the site and takes away our efforts to change the nature of the area."
Sandy officials are concerned that 20 or 30 trains going in and out of the facility each morning and again each evening would create excessive noise and light pollution for nearby residents. If Sandy officials had their druthers, said Rick Davis, Sandy's representative on the Light Rail issue, the vehicle maintenance facility would be somewhere else.
"We are concerned that (UTA) has not investigated other sites," Davis said. "But if the (Sandy) council is satisfied that this will not disrupt the residents, they will not" oppose the facility placement near Sandy residents.
"Once it is in there, you can't take it out," Davis said. "So it is in our interest to (voice) our concerns early."
Both Midvale and UTA officials are hopeful Wednesday's meeting at Midvale City Hall will lead to a resolution.
"We've been working on it, we get some good signs one day and some less good signs the next day," Barnes said. "The last I heard it was still in a state of flux."
UTA engineers, meanwhile, are preparing designs for both the Midvale-Sandy site and a backup site in Murray. Barnes said UTA would build the facility in the Pallas rail yard south of 5300 South in Murray if an agreement cannot be reached with Midvale and Sandy.
But John Inglish, UTA's assistant general manager, said any facility built in Murray likely would be temporary because the 6.9-acre site would not be large enough to handle all of the system's light-rail cars should expansion occur as planned.
Murray City Attorney Craig Hall said UTA has discussed the possibility of building a maintenance facility in Murray on only one occasion, but as far as he knows there is no current opposition to the proposal.
Inglish noted that just last month UTA completed an analysis of the Midvale-Sandy site, the Murray site and two other locations near the Midvale Slag Site suggested by the city.
"What I think Midvale was hoping would be accomplished was to build the maintenance facility along a future extension, but we're talking about a future extension to West Jordan that we're not sure where we'd do it and it's in the future," Inglish said.
UTA's main struggle in South Salt Lake has been in acquiring enough land to build a full-size station at 2700 South. It's a struggle Barnes said the transit agency has all but given up.
But that doesn't mean there won't be a light-rail stop at 2700 South. Barnes said UTA will continue with plans to locate a stop in the railroad right of way to let people board and disembark, and construct walkways to provide street access. Because of limited bus service and expected low rider volume in the area, the site is not high on UTA's priority list.
Other stations in South Salt Lake will be at 2100 and 3300 South. At 3300 South, UTA is still trying to acquire one or two more parcels that will allow it to build a full-size station. South Salt Lake will be more of a destination point than a collection area.
UTA has acquired the land it needs to build stations in Murray at 4500 and 5300 South but still lacks all the land it needs for facilities at 3900 and 6400 South.
Although it wouldn't be a "deal breaker," Barnes said the failure of acquiring land for a station at 3900 South would be more a problem for UTA than other proposed stations because it plans to construct a park-and-ride lot there for at least 200 cars.
"That one, really, as you're going south from downtown is the first significant park-and-ride lot," Barnes said.
The 3900 South station lies outside the Murray corporate limits in unincorporated Salt Lake County but is within the city's declared future annexation area.
Barnes said "in all likelihood" UTA will buy electricity from Murray Power for light-rail journeys through the city because no other company has a franchise to deliver power in that area. Also, Murray Power will probably give a lower price, he said.
In October, Sandy officials sent UTA a five-page laundry list of 37 concerns regarding the light rail project. Late last month, UTA came back with a 17-page point-by-point response and offered to hold a light-rail workshop with the Sandy City Council.
Sandy officials are worried light-rail trains crossing busy streets will cause traffic to back up, that motorists won't have good vision of oncoming trains and that residents will be kept awake at night by loud light-rail whistles. All these issues, Davis said, are capable of being resolved either between the city and the UTA or in some other forum such as the Council of Governments. He said UTA's recent letter of response seemed to satisfy many of the city's concerns.
Among the many roads the cars will cross is 9000 South. Sandy officials are concerned that emergency vehicles deployed at the nearby fire station will be held up at the tracks by trains passing every five minutes at peak hours of the morning and afternoon.
"That may add 30 to 40 seconds response time to any vehicle," Davis said, adding that the city has a goal to respond to emergency calls within five minutes.
Davis said Sandy and UTA are considering installing a remote control at the fire station that firefighters can use to delay approaching trains so that fire engines or ambulances can cross the tracks without waiting.
"It is feasible and has been done in other cities," Davis said.
As now planned, the line will end at 10000 South in Sandy. But developers, Realtors and Draper city planners believe it won't be long before light rail winds through their city and below the northern bench of Traverse Mountain. City officials, though, are disappointed the first phase of light rail won't go further south.
"I think it is shortsighted in that the (UTA) stopped the planning" in Sandy, said Draper City Manager Dave Campbell. "We see that light rail would be a benefit to our city.. . . We have limited bus service out here, no light rail, and our population is growing dramatically."
As it stands, Draper commuters probably will have to wait until UTA finishes the north-south route, then tackles a proposed east-west line between the airport and the University of Utah.
Construction of the Sandy-to-Salt Lake City line is scheduled to begin next spring, assuming UTA has sutured the remaining suburban gaps in its design plan by then. UTA officials are confident they can convince local government officials that the process will be painless and that they'll all be able to play the violin when it's over.