Not to distract from this website's current goal of getting city council candidates elected but an important issue has come up that will effect the long term quality of life of Farmington Utah residents. A City Council public hearing will be held September 4, 2007 to address Farmington City's possible bid to become a non-pledging member of UTOPIA. The City Council is not required to hold a public hearing to move forward with this decision but they want to hear the public's input.

This decision is a no brainer in my mind to improve the quality of life of Farmington residents. However this decision will rub two very big outside interests very wrong. The two companies Quest and Comcast will most likely be commenting at this hearing with their opinions of stiff opposition. My hope is that Farmington residents will throw their support behind the move to bring truely modern communications services to the city by pledging to be a member city of UTOPIA. Residents of Farmington often express frusteration at the constant demands of outside interests into the quality of life of Farmington. This will be an oportunity for residents to tell outsiders what is best for Farmington.

So what is UTOPIA and why should Farmington join the project. From UTOPIA's website, "The Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA) is a consortium of Utah cities engaged in deploying and operating a fiber optic network to every business and household in its member communities."

For more information about UTOPIA visit:

• http://www.utopianet.org/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Telecommunication_Open_Infrastructure_Agency

You can see the City Council meeting agenda here: http://farmington.utah.gov/downloads/administration/ccagenda09042007.pdf

Update (August 23, 2007): The site plan now posted on CenterCal's website no longer includes the logos of prospective tenets. The list of prospective tenets listed below come from a previous version of the site plan.

Update (June 26, 2007): The Davis County Clipper posts a story about Station Park and the new site plan. The City was taken off guard by the new plans.

CenterCal Properties has revealed on their website the latest plan for the Station Park commercial development in Farmington Utah. The site plan reveals a new configuration of buildings, stores, and restaurants.

The new site plan seems to cover a smaller footprint than previous plans. Another major change is a "strip mall" look to some of development. Where previously the whole development had a walkable village feel this new site plan has a 50/50 strip mall/village configuration.

Here is a link to the new map. The download may take a while so be patient:

Station Park Site Plan

For a look at what the previous site plan was like here are some links:

Ingress/Egress Map

Graphic from January 2007 Deseret Morning News Article

Some the stores (and one restaurant) indicated in the new site plan are:

• Whole Foods
• Target
• Best Buy
• Bed Bath and Beyond
• Old Navy
• Staples
• Barnes and Noble
• Crate & Barrel
• ULTA
• DSW
• Cost Plus World Market
• Nordstrom Rack
• Claim Jumper

This once again put light on UDOT practices and should reinforce to the Planning Commission and City Council that we don't need to ease the property path for UDOT to snap everything up on the cheap and depress property values in Farmington for a possible Legacy connector!

http://www.standard.net/live/news/111743

Nate Creer has summarized his conversation with Mayor Harbertson in a letter. Here is the letter:

----

Dear Mayor Harbertson-

Thank you again for taking the time to talk with me at the Transportation Expo.

It was interesting to find out that we share a common family name.

The citizens of West Farmington have developed a website http://farmingtoncitizens.org/web/ to help us in communicating on issues that effect the west side.

I would like to highlight our discussion in the points listed below and then post my findings in regards to the Legacy Connection Corridor on the website. If you would please correct me if I am wrong on any of my points, before they are posted.

1. The firm was asked to look at every option including a redesign of the Park Lane interchange that would incorporate Option 4.
2. The independent firm will need 3 to 4 months to complete their investigation. (The city are hoping it does not take that long)
3. You will recommend to the planning commission in August that they table the corridor discussion until the independent firm has completed their work.
4. Your hope is that the independent firm will bring a viable option that will incorporate Option 4 and fix the current intersection. The Mayor Hopes that the independent firm will find an option that will not bisect the city yet again.
5. A small committee was formed to establish the criteria that would guide our independent engineer as he begins and works through his study. Roger Eggett is a member of that committee and during our first meeting suggested an option that would move Option 3 further to the East and North and have a smaller impact on the homes. We included that as an option to be reviewed and considered to see if it has legs.
6. The current proposed option 3 is the only option that meets all for legislative criteria because it alleviates the pressures off of Park Lane. However in order to do that it would turn the connection at Park Lane in to much more than just an overpass, it will include a diamond interchange with on and off ramps.
7. It is your belief that if you do not amend the master plan and approve the corridor as a city council now, or come up with a better plan, UDOT will put in the corridor in no matter what and in 15 years when the corridor is truly needed then they will exercise eminent domain and condemn all businesses and homes in their way at a higher expense to the tax payers of Utah.

Mayor, I believe that you are right when you said there have been some great options proposed by the residents themselves and that they should be seriously considered. Please know that I recognize the position you are in, we need you as a negotiator and project planner to work with all parties in facilitating the very best option for Farmington. I recognize the complicated nature of the project, however I believe we can find a viable solution. We need UDOT to recognize the cost opportunity available to them in just fixing the intersection they built incorrectly, which will save money in the long run, and improve the vitality, and potential for Farmington both commercial and residential. I believe we can reach a compromise, it is going to take skill and high level negotiation power and the use of all our resources. I still stand by my initial statement in regards to UDOT, It is incorrect to think that they can do whatever they want.

I again pledge my support in doing whatever I can to facilitate any projects, teams or discussions that may need to happen in finding a better solution rather than accept the obvious problems created by Option 3.

Thanks again for your time and leadership on this issue.


Nate Creer

Roger Eggett attended a special committee meeting to discuss Farmington City's guideline for the newly hired engineer. Roger proposes an alternative route than option 3. Here is his report:

I was invited by the Mayor to participate in a committee to outline the guidelines for an engineer the city hired to perform a study of the Legacy North Connector. The City Council allocated $40,000 to pay for this study. The engineer has been hired and will report his findings to the committee. Essentially, his objective is to review the information obtained by UDOT as they analyzed each option for the connector. Additionally, he was assigned to evaluate the options and see if he agrees with the recommendation made by UDOT or if his findings result in a different recommendation. He was also given the charge to determine if there exists other options that have not been explored. He will report his findings to this committee and give further guidance to the city as the city decides whether or not to amend its transportation corridor to comply with the request by UDOT to adopt what is commonly referred to as Option #3.

It has been made known that UDOT will present its case to the City Planning Commission at a public hearing to be held on or about August 8, 2007 [the date has been set for August 9th]. Based on the fact that the engineer will not have completed his study and this will be the Planning Commissions first opportunity to hear from the public, it is most likely the Planning Commission will not make a recommendation at that first meeting but schedule a follow-up meeting to make a recommendation.

Having said all of that, during the meeting it was reported that UDOT is convinced that Option 3 is their best option and compared to the other three options it is the only viable option. They indicated that they most likely will not be persuaded to choose one of the other three options and will only consider changing their position on Option 3 if a new option or new information is presented to them that supports a change. Having sat through the first hour of the meeting without commenting it appeared to me that unless something new was presented Option 3 would become the likely outcome. Therefore, I asked to speak and present a modification to Option #3 that would come closer to meeting the citizens objectives but still allow UDOT, the City, and various other interested parties to meet their requirements.

The proposal I put forth is to basically take Option #3 and shift it north along 650 West north of the homes on 250 South and as close to Clark Lane as possible. This means that as it runs along the DR&G tracks (from North to South) and then turns east after the fairgrounds, this proposal requires it to turn east at the beginning of the fairgrounds and just clip the south end of the jail complex. In either proposal the fairgrounds are planning on moving so why not just cut around the jail rather than extend it further south? Then instead of running along the east side of the DR&G tracks push it out several hundred feet to the east through the open undeveloped land and then provide a trail and buffer system between the connector and the DR&G corridor.

I can explain this in more detail at the meeting. Although it does not completely remove the connector from the west side of Farmington it separates existing homes very little and is a compromise that might work, it is certainly an improvement over Option #3 which is what we will be left with if we insist on not coming up with an alternative they will listen to.

What has become apparent to me is that we can scream as loudly as we want but unless we say something that allows each interested party to maintain something that is important to them they will not listen. This proposal allows the city to add to its commercial space, UDOT to pretend that Clark Lane is viable, the golf course to maintain the 14th hole, Station Park to maintain its current plans, the state legislature to meet its 2040 requirements, and the citizens to keep the freeway from dividing homes and being right in our back yard. I agree that the citizens give up the most on this option but unfortunately we have the least amount of power and representation at the table.

Tonight was the Davis County Transportation Expo. UDOT did a great job bringing so many projects and people under one roof. There were representatives from many agencies, municipalities, contractors, and safety advocates. I gravitated to the Farmington booth and spoke with Mayor Harbertson, Paula Alder, and Max Forbush.

Here is what I was informed of by the Mayor.

• Today (June 27, 2007) Farmington City received the formal application from UDOT to change the transportation master plan for corridor preservation to North Legacy to Legacy Parkway corridor option 3.
• Aug 9th is the date set for a joint Planning Commission/City Council hearing for UDOT's application.
• The City has hired a engineering firm headquartered in Draper to do a study of the North Legacy to Legacy Parkway connector. The study is paid for by the city (no UDOT involvement).
• An adhoc commitee was put together sometime this week to determine the City's criteria for the connector (the criteria will be posted once I can get it). The engineers will be working from this criteria list for the study.
• The Mayor will be meeting tomorrow with CenterCal to discuss the new site plan for Station Park.

Steve Akerlow alerted me to this news article from Sunday's Deseret Morning News. I think Nicole Warburton conveyed the concerns of Farmington residents fairly well. However a non-Farmington resident may not pick up on the point that "bisecting" west Farmington is a very big issue. From I-15 on the east to the 100 year flood plain on the west there is just not very much room in west Farmington. Not only does the proposed UDOT connector obviously destroy homes but less obviously it destroys a small community pinched in by the lake and the mountains.

You can see the Deseret Morning News article here:

Farmington, UDOT at odds over road

Please login an comment with your opinion using the link at the bottom of this post.

Nate Creer has requested his email to the Farmington City Council and Mayor be posted. If Nate receives a reply we'll post the response. Many others have sent letters to officials. If you want your letter posted please contact us.

--

Dear Mayor and City Council Members-

I wish to raise my voice with all other West Farmington Residents, in opposition to the proposed Option 3 North Legacy to Legacy Connection Corridor that UDOT is planning to build.

Knowing that you act on behalf of all citizens of Farmington, and as residents of West Farmington, we expect that you will do your civic duty in representing the majority in opposition to this corridor.

We ask that you protect our way of life, and as Paula Alder has requested, we too request that you look to support other options.

Our desire to see this stopped is as strong today as it was in the fall during the Farmington City Planning Meeting where hundreds of West Farmington residents spoke out against the proposed plan.

I spoke with Senator Greg Bell last night who informed me personally that the decision to move forward with this plan lies in the hands of the Mayor and City Council. It is incorrect to think that UDOT can do whatever they want.

Senator Bell has no interest in supporting us as a community on this issue, when he said "Look Nate, I represent 150 thousand people in my district, not just you and your neighborhood."

This complacent attitude will get us nowhere, we need you as a Governing Council to stand with us and firmly SAY NO to Option 3.

Thank you for the service you provide, please feel free to contact me at any time.

Nate Creer
<contact information deleted>

Last night the news media attended the UDOT informational meeting at the Davis County Fair grounds.  Here are the stories from TV media:

From ABC4:
Proposed Legacy Highway route concerns West Farmington residents

Video from KUTV Channel 2.  See Jeremy Holmes and  Brandon John comment:
Residents Worried About Legacy Highway Connector Plan