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 Davis County Clipper is also carrying the story: http://www.clippertoday.com/link.asp?smenu=1&sdetail=25263&wpage=1

 The Davis County Clipper reports on the development project "Village at Old Mill".  This development has been controversial as residents felt the project didn't fit the vision of what Farmington is and should be.   The Mayor is quoted as saying, “My hope is that once this project is done the people of Farmington will see that this is a good thing for the city. This will do nothing but help the city grow in size, and the long-term economical impact for the city will be seen in the coming years after the project.”

See the article on the Clippers website here.

The Davis County Clipper reports that Station Park will begin construction this week. See the Clipper article here.

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?

The Salt Lake Tribune has run an article about the efforts of the Farmington Citizens Committee. You can see the article online here: "Farmington west-siders show political muscle" - http://www.sltrib.com/ci_6952460

The article highlights the tremendous efforts of Tauna Holmer and Roger Eggett to really get the group going. Great work to all who have dedicated so much time and effort to the benefit of Farmington.

Update: See the Mayor's reply to this letter here: Mayor's Reply - Politics at the Fire Department?

 

Dear Mayor,

It came to my attention today that Chief Larry Gregory spent the first part of drill time telling those in attendance how to vote in the City Council elections. He said that the west side candidates only had one agenda and that was to stop the option 3 UDOT proposal and that they didn't understand any of the real issues of the city. Fortunately I wasn't at the drill last night or I would have turned in my pager and quit on the spot. As a tax paying citizen of Farmington I don't think Fire Drill time (for which the City is paying) should be used as a political campaigning arena unless all of the candidates are invited and given time to tell their views and answer questions. I know that Chief Gregory doesn't have any idea as to how the "west side" candidates view all of the issues facing Farmington. It disturbs me, not that he has an opinion about the candidates, but that he is telling the firemen how to vote by dispensing inaccurate information about the west side candidates. I don't believe that campaigning for candidates on City time is in his job description. I really don't care who he supports, I just think he handled this so poorly that he should at least apologize to the Fire Department, the candidates, and the citizens of Farmington. If campaigning should be done at drill shouldn't the candidates be invited to represent themselves rather than having the Chief tell everyone what they do or don't support?

You have been to our committee meetings and know how strongly we feel about the UDOT issue, but you also saw that we from the west side are interested in Farmington as a whole. We are not promoting an East versus West or any other platform which divides the city. Physically dividing the city with a freeway is not what we want, but creating an "us versus them" division is even worse than dividing us with a freeway and I know that the three candidates from the west side feel the same way. They all want "Farmington First"--that's the whole city, not just the west side.

Since the Chief took it upon himself to spend taxpayers money to campaign for the status quo, I think it only fair that he invite all of the candidates to drill and let the city pay for the audience to be there so everyone's views can be given. The Chief was way out of line using my money for that purpose and what it looks like is that he was told to go and tell the firemen how they should vote. This only continues to give the appearance of back door politics. And if that is the case then we really have a problem at City Hall.

He also said that the City Council was going to meet with UDOT next week and refuse their request for Option 3. I hope that is true, but I fail to see the urgency for the vote at this time.

I would like to hear from you concerning this matter.

Thanks,

Dave Kershisnik

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.

The Mayor outlined to me over the phone his time line for a decision on the connector issue. In a nut shell the Mayor wants a decision on UDOT's application by October 2nd. UDOT's application is to request a change in Farmington's transportation master plan for option 3 of the North Legacy to Legacy connector study.

 

September 18 - Report to City Council and Planning Commission by independent engineering consultant Tim Taylor. Mr. Taylor was charged by Farmington City to look at UDOT's proposed routes for the legacy connector and to propose any viable alternative routes. He was to have his report ready by the end of August but was delayed because the City changed the scope of his work.
September 27 - Planning commission to make a decision on what recommendation to give to the City council.
October 2 - City Council to decide on UDOT's application.

 

The Citizens' Committee has expressed concern over the urgent time line set forth in making this decision about the connector. The committee feels the decision should be left to the City Council that will be beginning service next year after this November's general election. The next term City Council members will the the ones that will have to live with the repercussions of this decision.

The Mayor has defended the time line set forth by saying (1) it is the responsibility of this current City Council to see this decision through and (2) developer are anxiously waiting to know what the decision will be on UDOT's application so they can move forward with their projects. The developments developers he named were Trophy Homes, Miller Meadows (Rainey Homes), and Ron Martinez.

The Mayor reminded me that he had stated at the Citizens Committee meeting June 28th that the decision on UDOT's application should be made before this November's election. The Mayor also expressed that this election for City Council candidates should not be based on one issue campaigning although he admits he hasn't seen any of that during this election.

Farmingtoncitizens.org community member jjsoffe sent this notice about UDOT's efforts to get feedback on transit and road projects in Davis County. There is a similar article in the Deseret Morning News. Everyone should take a minute and follow this link to UDOT's website and fill out the survey. If you would rather call then use 888-721-4211. Let UDOT know how you feel about transit projects going through Farmington and Davis County. Remember UDOT loves to gather data. This survey data will most likely be included in the ever-so-important EIS (environmental impact statement).

I just saw this on page B5 of the SL Tribune [see the web version of the article here]. I thought it interesting that I hadn't remembered hearing about this public 'feedback' at any of the meetings - perhaps it is an oversight on my part, and everyone is aware of this study, but in case people haven't heard of it - the web site is www.udot.utah.gov/southdavistransit/comment.htm - there is also a phone line called the South Davis Transit Study Hotline @ 888-721-4211. I did the study, and it doesn't have anything on there about the proposal for Legacy North - but does have proposals for other forms of travel - bus lines, light rail, and a diesel line.

Thanks, J. Soffe