For now faith in our legislative officials has been restored. The Deseret Morning News reports that the House has amended SB208. The House stripped Senator Killpack's SB208 bill of Eminent Domain powers.

Today the Senate has since ratified the amendments the House made to the bill. Looks like the new watered down bill is onto the Governor's desk.

What the House left in the bill was the requirement that municipalities now have to notify UDOT when there is an application for entitlement work (zoning changes, etc.) on a land where UDOT wants to build a road. UDOT will have 30 days to offer (not condemn as before) to purchase the land from the property owner. If UDOT can't get its act together then the entitlement application moves forward.

Since the bill had been stripped of is threatening Eminent Domain language Farmington Citizens will be able to rest easy that this battle is over. On to the next battle. I'm sure Senator Killpack will be back again in the future to change the rules and force the connector road right through the heart of west Farmington. I'm elated to know that Rep. Brad Lee thought it was prudent that corridor alignment issues be brought before elected municipal officials for consideration rather than bypass public input by giving eminent domain powers to unelected bureaucrats.

Please send a note of appreciation to Rep Brad Lee for his wisdom. You can find contact information for him here: http://www.le.state.ut.us/house/members2005/bios2005.asp?id=11

SB208 has passed the Senate without any opposition.  The bill is with the House at this time.  Please contact your Representative in the House and express you opposition to the bill.   To see current progress of the bill go to this page:

http://le.utah.gov/~2008/htmdoc/sbillhtm/sb0208.htm 

In a follow up to the earlier post: "Senator Killpack's Smelly Eminent Domain Bill - SB208" Jason Snow offers his view of Senator Killpack's bill:

High Priority

Study this BILL SB208 and contact your senator and representative and let them know how your views about this bill.

I would encourage each of you to study Senate Bill 208 this is a bill that is being proposed by Sheldon Killpack. He represents the Syracuse and Layton areas. He is proposing that a committee of seven people from the UDOT be given the power to declare eminent domain in transportation corridors that are deemed "high priority". Below are just some of the highlights that I quickly found in the bill. I am sure that there is more. It seems on the face that this bill is meant to by pass the public input and debate about where roads go. It seems that Senator Killpack and the other sponsors of this bill are tired of fighting the public and instead of following the laws already in place they are going to create a new law so that they can speed things up.

72-5-402. Public purpose.
184 (1) The Legislature finds and declares that the planning and preservation of
185 transportation corridors is a public purpose, that the acquisition of public rights in private
186 property for possible use as a transportation corridor years in advance is a public purpose, and
187 that acquisition of public rights in private property for possible use as alternative transportation
188 corridors is a public purpose, even if one or more of the transportation corridors is eventually
189 not used for a public purpose, so long as reasonable evidence exists at the time of acquisition
190 that the transportation facility will be developed within the time period established under this
191 part.


(b) The department may:
230 (i) use eminent domain powers for the acquisition of private property rights for
231 transportation corridor preservation purposes:
232 (A) if the property is located within the boundaries of a critical transportation corridor
233 designated under Subsection (4)(a); and
234 (B) no sooner than 45 days after the department has notified a county or municipality
235 in accordance with Subsection (4)(a)(ii); and
236 (ii) for the acquisition of private property rights through the use of eminent domain
237 powers for transportation corridor purposes authorized under this Subsection (4)(b)

Here is information on contacting elected officials.

Utah State Senator Sheldon Killpack of Syracuse is up to something fishy. Since us Farmington residents live so close to the Great Salt Lake we are experts at detecting fishy smells. However this smell is coming from the Capitol this time. Senator Killpack who would love to see the Legacy Parkway Connector paved right through the heart of west Farmington is sponsoring a Senate bill to change transportation corridor preservation rules. The bill is SB208. You can read the text of the bill here: http://le.utah.gov/~2008/bills/sbillint/sb0208.htm

So why does this bill seem to smell so bad especially for Farmington residents? If this bill is passed it would let UDOT immediately start condemning land for the Legacy Connector. All UDOT would have to do to get the green light on eminent domain power is designate a "preferred alternative" route by a feasibility study and notify a municipality of is chosen route. Well UDOT has already done this with the Legacy Connector. The funny thing is UDOT doesn't plan on building the Connector road for another 15-30 years if at all. Yet this bill lets UDOT use eminent domain powers now even if they never actually build the road. Did you get that? UDOT can take away land now for a road that may never get built. UDOT can take land regardless of what the public has to say about it and they can take land even if a City Council doesn't agree with where UDOT wants to plunk down a road.

What does this bill change? Currently for UDOT to get eminent domain powers they have to actually be in the process of getting a road built. This means they have to do the appropriate studies like Environmental Assessment (EA) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). These studies include public input and a whole host of real work not found in the half baked puny feasibility study. These Environmental studies happen just a few year prior to construction, not decades prior like a feasibility study.

The Farmington City Council last September told UDOT that UDOT's preferred route for the Legacy Connector is unacceptable and thus would not include it in the City's master transportation plan. UDOT responded by saying they would stick with their option 3 route regardless and start buying land from "willing sellers" if and when funds were available. This bill now ups the ante and would let UDOT condemn citizen's land right away regardless if sellers were "willing".

Please let our officials know this bill really stinks. For Senator Killpack's contact information and other official's contact information you can refer to this page: http://farmingtoncitizens.org/web/contact-elected-officials

If any of this information is incorrect or you have more information to share please leave a comment or use the contact form.

The Deseret Morning News reports that the Davis County Commissioners have hired engineers to "figure out how best to make the Events Center... fit in with future freeway plans". The article explains the findings of the engineers.

The mindset by the county commissioners in this matter is quite disconcerting. One assumption the commissioners seem to be making is that the Legacy connector will follow the option 3 path UDOT has chosen. The option 3 proposal for a freeway will shave off a big chuck of the Fairgrounds and split west Farmington in a very detrimental way. The Farmington City Council rejected this option and told UDOT that the City's preferred route is option 2 which takes the connector to the west of Farmington City not through it.

The commissioners seem to be also looking at general improvement to the fairgrounds by hiring the engineering firm. This motive is welcome. However the primary motive to hiring the engineers seems to be an act of capitulating to UDOT and snubbing the City of Farmington. The County Commissioners need to throw their support behind the Farmington City council by not facilitating the easement of UDOT's desired option 3 route for the Legacy Connector. The improvement of the Fairgrounds is very welcome but not at the expense of making room for a very unwelcome freeway alignment.

Follow the link to read the Deseret News article: http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695251438,00.html

The Deseret News reports has an article on the connector issue. Here is a link to the online story: "Farmington likely will reject connector bid".

UDOT isn't going to be happy that the City is going to deny their application. UDOT tried to get Farmington to do their work for them but Farmington is going to send a message to UDOT to get their act together and their facts straight before they go proposing something that is going to destroy the character of the City.

Of note in the article is a quote from Cory Pope the UDOT region one director, "The development will continue if we don't do something active to preserve the corridor, and there's a good chance that in the future — even if there are 100 to 150 homes in the area — we could still determine that corridor to be the preferred alternative for the connection road," he said. "If that's the case, it's a shame that many more impacts could happen to residents."

This is a bullying comment. UDOT is saying they could careless about the greater impact of another major road road through a small community. They just build roads and if a community is destroyed in the process it's not their problem. They do care that taking out 100-150 homes in the future will cost a lot more money then than getting the land on the cheap now. UDOT fails to give any concern for what their proposal is doing and will do to the community as a whole. They don't care about those theoretical people in those theoretical 100-150 homes they just want their land cheap now and depressing the value of the community as a whole 15 years before a road is even built. UDOT can't guarantee any benefit of the connector to Farmington, none. They try to say the connector will benefit Farmington but there is no proof, because there is not data, there are no environmental studies. Is there any surprise that Farmington is saying to UDOT go do real studies for your proposal rather than just bringing us cost estimates for steel and concrete?

Here is a link to the slide presentation given by Tim Taylor of WCEC Engineers to the City Council and Planning Commission on 9/18/07: Legacy North to Legacy Connection Presentation

This presentation along with WCEC's formal report make up the complete picture given to the City Council by WCEC. The slide of note is the last slide from the presentation that gives his recommendations to the City Council:

1. Consider an amendment to the Master Transportation Plan to remove the current North Legacy to Legacy connection option (In conjunction with #4).
2. Initiate an effort to look at the development potential west of I-15
   1. Quantify the magnitude of traffic
   2. Identify and analyze key traffic access and circulation issues
   3. Study the feasibility for a local access ShepardLane interchange
3. If a local access interchange is viable at I-15/ ShepardLane, pursue an amendment to the Master Transportation Plan to include the interchange.
4. Wait to consider UDOT’s request to amend the Master Transportation Plan preserving a connection corridor until UDOT completes an Environmental Assessment (EA) or Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)

Farmington City Council meet last night (9/18/07). On the agenda was to hear Tim Taylor's report. Tim Taylor was hired by Farmington City to review UDOT's Legacy Connector proposal. The major topics of discussion were the Park Lane interchange, alignment of Legacy Connector, and a new I-15 interchange at Shepards Lane. Here are two of his recommendations (wording taken directly from the formal report):

"Based on the lack of technical information provided in the UDOT Corridor Preservation study, we recommend that the City wait to consider UDOT’s request to amend the Master Transportation Plan to include a preservation corridor until UDOT completes an Environmental Assessment (EA) or Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)."

"We recommend that the City consider an amendment to the Master Transportation Plan to remove this alignment option. This recommendation should be considered in conjunction with the recommendations in Appendix F related to a local access interchange at I-15/ Shepard Lane."

After listening to the discussion by City Council members and Planning Commissioners there was a consensus to deny UDOT's request to amend Farmington's transportation master plan for option 3. The sentiment was expressed by the Mayor as well as Planning Commissioners that more information is needed to make a decision. Either a Environmental Assessment (EA) or Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) needs to be performed to provided the information Farmington City needs to decide on the alignment of the Legacy connector.

No vote was taken as the Planning Commission still has to make a formal recommendation to the City Council. The Planning Commission will formally make the decision on what to recommend to the City Council at the September 27th meeting. Notices will be sent to west Farmington Residents of the public meeting and public hearing. Since the Planning Commissioners are anticipated to deny the request little public comment should be expected unless someone is in favor of UDOT's proposal.

The City Council is planning on making their decision on UDOT's application at the October 2, 2007 meeting.