A group of Lehi residents angry that the state's planning to build a six-lane highway through the city are expecting hundreds to join them at a protest this week.

Citizens Organized for Smarter Transportation are planning the demonstration to protest against the Mountain View Corridor, which is planned to cut through north Utah County, at either 1900 South or 1500 South in Lehi. The road would connect Interstate 80 in Salt Lake County to Interstate 15 in Pleasant Grove.

"I'm furious," said David Klock, Lehi resident, developer and conservationist. "I'm angry that we don't have some mass transportation plan. Anyway, we got a lot more people interested."

The small organization began with Klock and 8-10 people in January. Weeks later, it boasts a membership of several thousand, he said.

"Mostly it's individuals, but what is remarkable about it is it's such a diverse group," he said. "We have landowners holding hands with developers, we have conservationists holding hands with hunters and fishermen, we have individual homeowners that are just in it to protect their future and their families."

Much of Klock's frustration comes from developing a conservation-wise community, Spring Creek Ranch, in south Lehi based on the city's development plan, and then after building the subdivision having UDOT try and change the plans, he said.

"It's just we're all rallying around a common cause," he said. "We want something that is better for the area and that is not what UDOT is proposing."

He said he believes there will be at least 700 people at the rally, Citizens Rally for Smarter Transportation. The event is free and will be at the Legacy Center, 123 N. Center St. in Lehi at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

The rally organizers want to outline their various positions on Lehi City's proposed connecting boulevards, and to support the City Council for supporting its approved master transportation plan, which does not include freeways as connecting corridors from Interstate 15 to Redwood Road.

"It's basically a support rally to make sure everybody is on the same page," Klock said.

The organization has attracted other developers to participate as well as homeowners in the area.

Sarah Kimmel joined the organization about a month ago. The backyard of her brand new home is on 1900 South, one of the proposed sites for the Mountain View Corridor.

"They shouldn't be selling homes if there are going to be freeways going through it," she said. "We moved from southern California hoping this would be the last home we were moving into."

She said she hopes UDOT will look at other alternatives besides putting freeways through people's homes.

Claude Lamp's extended family stands to lose five homes if the corridor cuts through 1900 South.

He co-owns 120 acres in an agriculturally protected zone in Lehi. Lamp wrote a letter to the Sierra Club proposing UDOT not build a freeway on the west side of the lake and instead develop four-lane boulevards where needed.

"We are just doing this as landowners to be protected," he said. "At this time I think it's not the best alternative for moving traffic in and out of Utah County."

COST Rally

Date: Wednesday, March 14

Time: 7:30 p.m.

Place: Legacy Center, 153 N. 100 East, Lehi

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B1.

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