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'Not in my backyard" attitudes have plagued cities across the nation for years, and they're beginning to wreak havoc in Utah Valley, especially when it comes to building needed east-west roads.
Lehi fought tooth and nail against a 2100 North freeway connecting the Mountain View Corridor to I-15. Officials and residents didn't want it in their backyard. They complained it would divide their community and bring in noisy and dangerous traffic. The Utah Department of Transportation finally compromised, and committed to cutting the width of the road in half, making it an expressway of two lanes in each direction, with traffic lights along the way. It's a pipsqueak compromise that won't put a significant dent in Utah County's long-range transportation problem. Space has been left to expand the compromise road, but to do that UDOT will have to start from scratch with a new environmental study, new hearings, and all the other rigmarole associated with highway construction. And that means that a bigger highway won't be built for many years to come, when it will be far more painful, if it's even possible. Whatever UDOT's reasoning, we are sorry it gave in. Lehi's NIMBYs are identical to those in many cities across America who have blocked the construction of a needed freeway only to discover, too late, that snarled traffic and the attendant costs of lost time, wasted gas and added pollution have hurt the livability of their community. Lehi's unfortunate refusal to accept the project will prove to be one of the more nearsighted episodes in the city's history. One day, not so far in the future, sheer growth will force the construction of new corridors, and they might not fall in ideal places. By 2040 the Cedar Valley area is expected to grow to a quarter-million people, with only 17 percent of wage earners heading north for work. The employment connection for the vast majority will be Utah County, a fact that boldly underscores the desperate need for more east-west routes. Here's an interesting comparison: Salt Lake County has a dozen east-west corridors of five to seven lanes each from it's western areas. Utah County has only two east-west arteries -- that's right, two -- from Cedar Valley. They are Lehi's Main Street (S.R. 73) and Santaquin's Main Street (U.S. 6). And Lehi is already clogged. Now imagine that measly two-lane compromise that Lehi forced on Utah County trying to handle tens of thousands of vehicles from Cedar Valley a mere 15 years from now. What comes to mind is an image of hardened arteries and heart failure. That is the gift to the next generation from Lehi's NIMBYs. If there are any environmentalists who cheered the downsizing of the 2100 North proposal, they should now recognize that it will only hasten the construction of an east-west bridge across Utah Lake -- likely from Pelican Point on the west shore to the Orem-Vineyard area. It's true that the environmental challenge of a lake crossing will be significant, but all those questions will eventually be answered and a bridge will be built. Heavy growth in Cedar Valley is going to force the issue. A bridge will cut the long loop around the top of the lake to a mere 8 miles, which will save fuel and reduce air pollution. You can bet that a lake bridge will be heavily used even if it's a toll road. This undertaking will cost something like $500 million -- in line with other highway construction. A $3 toll could bring in $35 million annually to pay for it. Household growth sufficient to fully justify a lake bridge is just 15 years off, and that time will flash by in a heartbeat. So the government studies currently under way are timely. We are eager to see their findings on this and the other inevitability: a freeway running south through Cedar Valley and connecting to I-15 in southern Utah County. The unstoppable reality is that Utah County will have a million inhabitants in 25 or 30 years, and we owe it to the next generation to plan now. We want Utah Valley to continue to be recognized as one of the best places to live in America. |
