The Utah chapter of the Sierra Club says the state is taking a "high-risk" gamble by trying to preserve land in Farmington for a northward connector road from the Legacy Parkway, because no long-term environmental studies have been done.
The road would begin west of I-15 and north of Glovers Lane. The road would skirt the Davis County Fairgrounds and then link with a northern extension of the parkway, known as Legacy North. No long-term environmental impact studies have been done about the connector road, said Marc Heileson, regional representative of the Sierra Club.
"Buying a corridor before environmental studies are done — it's such a high-risk strategy," Heileson said Monday. "It's like putting the taxpayers' money on a roulette table and hoping you hit that number when the time comes."
The Sierra Club was one of several groups that sued the state to halt construction of the Legacy Parkway back in 2001. As a result of the litigation, the Utah Department of Transportation was required to re-study plans for Legacy. The agency settled the lawsuit in 2005, and the parkway is now under construction, with modifications to make the road more environmentally friendly.
When finished in late 2008, the Legacy Parkway will extend 14 miles, from North Salt Lake to Farmington. The connector road will link the parkway to Legacy North, somewhere near the border of Kaysville. Transportation planners have not determined where Legacy North will end, but UDOT said it will run at least to the Weber County border.
Heileson believes UDOT will have will have a hard time gaining approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the connector road and Legacy North because of their proximity to the Great Salt Lake wetlands. That makes buying land before doing an environmental study an uncertain proposition, he said.
UDOT officials say they have studied the connector road and believe further environmental studies would show it's not a "gamble." The agency wants to be able to buy and preserve land along the route for the road now, before property values increase in the coming years. A handful of homes would be impacted by the connector.
"If development is allowed to continue in that corridor, there will be even more impacts in the future," said UDOT spokesman Andy Neff.
He added that UDOT does not plan to build the connector for at least 10-15 years, and extensive environmental studies must be done first.
Meanwhile, UDOT is trying to get Farmington to change its transportation master plan to allow the state to purchase properties in the area from "willing sellers." Farmington has held several public hearings on the issue since last fall, but no decisions have been made.
The city is waiting on results from an independent engineer who is being paid to review studies of the connector road done by a UDOT consultant. Farmington won't make a decision until that study is finished in the next month.
Residents, however, don't want the connector. They say it will split their community in half, diminish property values, and be a health and safety hazard. Two weeks ago, about 200 people attended a public hearing on the matter. Of the dozens of public comments received, only two were remotely supportive of UDOT's efforts.
The Farmington Planning Commission intends to meet within the next month to decide whether to recommend amending the city's master transportation plan. If approved, the issue will go before the city council.
Farmington residents have put together a Web site about the connector road at: farmingtoncitizens.org.
E-mail: nwarburton@desnews.com