Citizens group wants to hit the brakes on corridor
But the formation of Citizens Organized for Smarter Transportation, which has heard from some 2,000 residents opposed to a six-lane freeway running through their neighborhoods, could come as a surprise to Utah's Department of Transportation, which has proposed the road as part of the corridor.
The citizens group plans to hold a rally Wednesday — the day before a scheduled UDOT Mountain View Corridor open house — to gain support for its cause.
"(COST) is a very, very neat organization," said developer Dave Klock, a developer who helped form the action group. "You have so many diverse groups that are joining hands. You've got developers and landowners and you've got conservationists and hunters and fishermen. You've got a whole wide variety of people here who are supporting what we're supporting."
UDOT has been having — and will continue to have — open houses to gather public comment about the proposed corridor, but until recently no Utah County-based organized opposition to the road has come forward.
As part of an ongoing environmental-impact study, UDOT officials are planning the open house Thursday to "get the public up to speed on what's happened in the last couple of months," Mountain View Corridor project manager Teri Newell said.
For almost a year, UDOT has presented several different options for the Mountain View Corridor in Utah County, one of which proposes alignments that could mean the relocation of 97 homes in the area and run through government-protected wetlands. Other options could affect fewer homes, but UDOT has not selected a preferred option.
Until one road is identified as the preferred option, Newell says UDOT will continue to look for public input about roads as they are being considered. It's important to keep the public updated and gather input as different options for the road are explored, Newell says, but ever-changing information about the project is something that concerns Klock. As issues arise with different road alignments, new locations are considered and presented to the public.
"The UDOT plan is all over the map," Klock said. "As far as I'm concerned, they're like a bouncing ball, and that's very unfortunate and unfair for the people who are having to suffer through not knowing whether their house is going to be razed or something."
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