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Months of acrimonious confrontation between Lehi and UDOT over the proposed Mountain View freeway ended in a surprising, if uneasy, truce on Tuesday when both sides simply agreed to put the idea of a new freeway in north Utah County away for now.
In an afternoon meeting announced at the last minute, the Utah Department of Transportation and Lehi staff presented Lehi City Council members with the results of three months of quiet negotiations over 2100 North. Reviewing what she called UDOT's new preferred design of the road, Teri Newell of UDOT said the state agency, hearing concerns from Lehi, had agreed to cut in half the width of the road, going from 680 feet wide to something closer to 350 feet wide. That plan will preserve a corridor wide enough to build a freeway if necessary, but beyond that, all bets are essentially off the table. Newell said that "if" a freeway ever needs to be built -- and that word alone represents a change in tone -- UDOT has now agreed that negotiations must begin again at some future date, with a new review of all possible alternatives, including the 4800 North option advocated by the city, all-new public hearings and a new environmental study. That means the emotional arguments for and against the freeway, which have drawn hundreds of residents to protest rallies and information meetings, will now find a resolution another day, perhaps decades into the future. Instead of planning for a freeway now, a new east-west connector at 2100 North will be built as soon as possible, with two lanes and traffic signals in each direction, using $130 million of state funding. This could be expanded to a third lane in each direction as traffic demands grow. The east-west lanes will have a 200-foot wide blank median between them, and UDOT will eventually be build express lanes with several local accesses inside that space. The express lanes could come 15 years or more in the future, officials said. Other major changes include a bridge that will lift railroad tracks over the new road at 2100 North and built-in U-turn lanes before signal lights that will allow faster local access. In addition, when the expressway lanes are built, ramps will allow commuters to exit from southbound I-15 directly onto State Street and also directly onto 2300 West. Meeting twice a week over the past three months, "has been an arduous process, but we are anxious to share the progress we've made," said city manager Jamie Davidson. Newell said UDOT and the city have been negotiating "to find something that works for both of us, and for the economic development of the city." Some details still have to be negotiated, including exact locations for access onto and off of 2100 North, Newell said. Right now, the information, maps and artist renderings presented on Tuesday are not available to the public, but will eventually be made available, likely at a Lehi-sponsored meeting when all negotiations between UDOT and Lehi are finalized. While they voted unanimously to accept the draft changes and continue negotiating with UDOT, and even complimented the state on being willing to make changes, Lehi officials lost no time in making clear that they have no intention of supporting a freeway along 2100 North, ever. Councilman Johnny Barnes called the freeway "a Berlin Wall" and said the new plans were not as much win-win as "all right, all right," but he agreed that negotiations were heading in the right direction. Davidson said the new plans were "not perfect" but represented headway toward the city's goal of minimizing the impact of the road on local residents. Mayor Howard Johnson said there will be no final solution "until we have a freeway at 4800 North" and said he was grateful UDOT had agreed to not "lock in" the freeway, at least for now. The new plan does not include the Salt Lake County portion of the proposed Mountain View Corridor. |
