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Wasatch Front staff finalizing RTP preferred scenario; Little Cottonwood and Rio Grande drew substantial comment
Summary
Wasatch Front Regional Council staff updated the committee on the Regional Transportation Plan (adoption scheduled May 2027), saying the preferred scenario has been developed, public comment closed, and phasing/prioritization work will begin; many comments related to Little Cottonwood Canyon and a proposed gondola, plus support for Rio Grande and a Fruit Heights trail study.
Wasatch Front Regional Council staff told the Active Transportation Committee that the regional transportation plan (RTP) preferred scenario is nearly final and will be phased this summer ahead of public workshops and an adoption schedule targeting May 2027.
Staff said the RTP is a fiscally constrained, multimodal plan that connects active transportation, transit and roadways with future land-use forecasts. The plan uses the Wasatch Choice Vision goals to screen and prioritize projects and will phase projects into decade buckets (2027–36, 2037–46, 2047–55) before fiscal-constraining by projected revenues.
The preferred scenario drew substantial public comment, staff said, with many responses focusing on the Little Cottonwood Canyon EIS and a proposed gondola. Staff reported broad support for projects on the Rio Grande corridor and said several comments concerned a trail project in Fruit Heights; those comments are under review with UDOT, UTA and the local communities. Workshops this fall and a formal public comment period next January–February will precede finalization of the plan for adoption in May 2027.
Staff also described their scoring and phasing criteria for active-transportation projects, which emphasize safe, separated facilities and access to economic and educational opportunities. They said they will return to the Active Transportation Committee with a draft of active-transportation priorities and phasing for feedback.
The committee raised questions about alignment between local UTN master-plan projects and the RTP phasing; staff advised that the UTN network and RTP are developed with local input and that phasing decisions will apply professional judgment in addition to the scoring model to ensure critical projects are prioritized.
Next steps: staff will proceed with phasing work this summer, present draft priorities to the ATC for comment, and run the RTP through its scheduled workshops and public comment process ahead of the targeted May 2027 adoption.
