This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Posted: 12:53 PM- After 18 months of legal wrangling about where to put a TRAX line in Draper, a Utah Supreme Court ruling today cleared the way for light-rail trains to run through the city's east-side residential neighborhoods.

Opponents of that route sought a referendum on the alignment, but the justices ruled the decision was administrative, not legislative, and thus not subject to the ballot box.

"The determinative test of whether an action is administrative or legislative is whether it creates new law or whether it is an implementation or execution of existing law," wrote Chief Justice Christine Durham.

In January 2007, Citizens for Responsible Transportation (CRT) submitted a petition to force a referendum on the proposed TRAX alignment along the Utah Transit Authority's right of way.

The grass-roots group wanted the train to run farther west along the city's dense commercial corridor near State Street and Interstate 15. They had hoped to keep TRAX from zipping by homes and feared it would, among other things, heighten noise, increase crime, hinder scenic views and decrease property values.

But UTA and Draper officials favored stringing TRAX along the existing UTA-owned right of way - an old train route it bought from Union Pacific in 1993.

In April 2007, 3rd District Court rejected CRT's bid to overturn the planned TRAX route, saying a city resolution could not be challenged because it was an administrative, not a legislative, decision.