Murray City says early public involvement reduced acquisitions and delays on recent roadway projects

Christopher, a Murray City engineer, presented a case study on using public involvement (PI) earlier in right-of-way acquisition for three recent Murray projects and said the approach reduced acquisitions, smoothed negotiations and shortened timelines in two of the three examples.

He outlined the three projects: Vine Street (widening/active-transportation project from 1300 East to Van Winkle) initially identified 44 partial acquisitions that were reduced to 30 after redesign and PI; 53rd Street and College Drive (near I-15) involved about $335,000 in acquisitions across five partial takes and commercial properties and experienced substantial delays because of acquisition disputes; and the 700 West/Winchester intersection project required roughly $150,000 in acquisitions with seven partial takes and closed most transactions in four months when PI was brought into design.

Christopher said a professional PI consultant's work for his projects cost about $15,000 in design-phase PI (he named Amalia Andrews of Kimley-Horn as the consultant on Vine Street). He described PI activities that included broad online surveys, one-on-one homeowner meetings (he gave an example of a three-hour meeting that helped secure buy-in), direct mailers and on-site outreach. He said early outreach helped tame misinformation around Vine Street's widening (an online petition had received many signatures opposing the project during earlier environmental review) and helped move vocal opponents to sign right-of-way agreements; for one holdout his team adjusted curb-and-gutter alignment to avoid taking the property.

By contrast, Christopher said the 53rd & College Drive example saw delays and higher costs after the city relied primarily on acquisition agents and city staff. That project missed a construction season; design began in summer 2021, right-of-way activity began January 2022, and right-of-way certification was not completed until December 2022. The resulting schedule slippage required staff and consultant reassignments and higher administrative costs, he said.

Christopher summarized pros and cons: early PI can preserve staff time and limit second appraisals and litigation risk, improve community acceptance and reduce acquisition counts, but some property owners distrust third-party consultants and PI adds upfront cost. He recommended that jurisdictions consider early, focused PI during design, and suggested continuity of the PI representative through construction when feasible.