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Wasatch Open Lands Board presses UDOT on bypass route, hears agency lacks funding and final EIS
Summary
At its Oct. 7 meeting, the Wasatch County Open Lands Board discussed UDOT's proposed bypass and related Environmental Impact Statement, heard that UDOT has no confirmed funding or final preferred route, and debated whether conservation easements could block a highway project.
Heidi Franco, mayor of Heber City and chair of the Wasatch County Open Lands Board, told members the county would ask UDOT representatives to explain the status of a proposed bypass and its EIS at an upcoming county council meeting. "UDOT assures the city council that if they want to proceed and put that development there, that's not going to stop the EIS," Franco said during the board's Oct. 7 meeting.
Board members said UDOT representatives emphasized the agency has not secured funding and has not finalized a preferred route. The board flagged a legal question raised during a prior UDOT presentation: whether federal rules that allow conservation easements to block some transportation projects apply to federal highway projects. Board members relayed that UDOT representatives pulled a partial quotation from the federal code and told the council that an exception exists for highway projects.
Several members urged inviting regional highway commission members and UDOT staff to the county meeting to press for clarity. Franco and others named potential invitees, including Kevin Van Tassel and Mike Evans from the highway commission. "We're trying to get them on the record as to if this land could be developed... would that stop their EIS or even just the bypass?" Franco said.
Board members debated the local consequences of annexation and development. One member said a city annexation could substantially raise land values and complicate acquisition for a future right-of-way; UDOT staff, the board said, told the council the presence of development would not necessarily halt the federal EIS process.
The discussion did not produce a formal board direction to approve or block any development. Instead, members agreed to press UDOT and to invite agency and highway-commission representatives to the county council meeting to seek public answers about funding timelines, route choices and the interaction between conservation easements and federal highway projects.
