Their goal is to apply pressure on regional planners to make the development of public transit in West Valley City a priority over construction of the eight-lane freeway that would follow 5800 West and cut between Hunter High and Whittier Elementary.
"This whole Mountain View Corridor freeway idea is one of the dinosaurs left over from the Leavitt administration," said Marc Heileson of the Sierra Club. "And like all dinosaurs, its bones should be put in a museum somewhere."
But Teri Newell, program manager for the Mountain View Corridor at UDOT, said Saturday that mass transit always has been part of the plans.
"We know what makes sense and believe there needs to be a public transit component," she said. "But it is the Legislature and the UTA [Utah Transit Authority] that determines the funding and what projects get built."
About 15 volunteers from groups that included Utahns for Better Transportation, the Sierra Club, Physicians for a Healthy Environment and Utah Moms for Clean Air went door-to-door to encourage West Valley residents to oppose the freeway.
The volunteers were raising a specter invoked by a recent health study that found children and the elderly living in the area would be harmed by heavy emissions from freeway traffic.
Physician Brian Moench, wearing a white lab coat, told the people he visited near Whittier Elementary at 6000 W. 3585 South about findings of a study released in January that shows children living near busy roadways can suffer from increased incidents of respiratory illnesses.
"Ask just about anyone in the Salt Lake Valley if we should follow the Los Angeles model [for freeway development] and they will tell you 'No'," Moench said. "But this [the freeway] is exactly what that is - a blueprint for turning Salt Lake into Los Angeles."
Dorothy Hancock, who lives across the street from Whittier and has grandchildren living next door, said after talking with Moench that she was concerned about the possible impact on the health of children living nearby if the freeway is built.
"I'm not entirely sure whether we even need the freeway or public transit in the area," Hancock said. "I know we don't go out that much anymore, and we certainly wouldn't use the TRAX system."
Roger Borgenicht of Utahns for Better Transportation said it is important to first address public transportation needs in the area rather than building a freeway that will only reinforce "automobile dependent" development patterns, such as building big box retail stores near freeway off-ramps.
In January, conservationists were alarmed when a new 30-year planning map of the Mountain View Corridor by the Wasatch Front Regional Council didn't definitively include any public transportation along 5600 West, which had been part of the mix in the Utah Department of Transportation's environmental studies of the corridor project.
The Wasatch Front Regional Council provides the models used by UDOT to forecast transportation needs, said the Sierra Club's Heileson. "You've now got a long-range plan that doesn't address public transportation needs."
But West Valley City Mayor Dennis Nordfelt, who sits as a member of the council and is its former chairman, said both freeway and public transit are needed to address future growth. And he added that addressing air quality issues is an integral part of the planning for the Mountain View Corridor.
"When you have growth, you have to find ways to deal with it," he said. "If you have growth and don't develop new infrastructure [such as additional public transportation or highways] you have more automobiles stopped on crowded roads with their engines running, and that certainly isn't good for air quality."
"Ask just about anyone in the Salt Lake Valley if we should follow the Los Angeles model [for freeway development] and they will tell you 'No'. But this [the freeway] is exactly what that is - a blueprint for turning Salt Lake into Los Angeles."
BRIAN MOENCH
Doctor with Physicians for a Healthy Environment
