No Davis fee hike
Car registration will increase by $10 in S.L. and Utah counties, though
Davis County would have used the money to buy land along the county's west side to make way for a proposed freeway called Legacy North. The aim was to secure the land for a roadway before further increases in real-estate prices. The Utah Legislature recently passed a measure authorizing all counties to increase the registration fees by $10 to preserve corridors for roads and receive matching funds from the state. Counties have until Saturday to impose the fees.
Davis County, if it had approved the fee hike, would have raised $1.9 million from the vehicle fees and would have received $1.9 million from the state. But the commissioners required unanimous support from the county's 15 cities before approving the fee increase. While 10 cities passed resolutions supporting the proposal, Clinton and Sunset opposed it. Three cities — Bountiful, South Weber and West Bountiful — took no action on the question.
The land on which Legacy North would sit is valued at about $99.3 million. But in 25 years, when the freeway could come through the county, the land could cost $248.3 million, according to the Davis County Council of Governments.
Council members agreed on the wisdom of buying land now, but said the state is in charge of obtaining land for and building state roads, and the counties shouldn't get stuck with the bill.
"I don't question the validity or the need," said Commissioner Carol Page. "It's smart to preserve land at today's current value."
The Salt Lake County Council on Tuesday approved its fee increase without debate, having hashed out the question in previous weeks. The money raised there — an estimated $175 million over the next 25 years — will be used to buy rights of way for the proposed Mountain View Corridor highway to run along the county's western edge.
Although that approval was unanimous, one councilman, Joe Hatch, said after the meeting that he was technically opposed to the increase because it doesn't go far enough.
"I wish this council would realize they have to do holistic planning and include light rail," Hatch said. He voted yes because it was a "done deal," he said.
Councilman Randy Horiuchi, meanwhile, called the council's decision "forward-thinking," adding that a light-rail corridor will open up as land is purchased for the Mountain View Corridor highway.
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