This alternative is essentially the same as the "shared solution" of commuter rail, bus rapid transit and light rail with a Redwood Road alternative substituted for the preferred Legacy Parkway alignment as approved by the Corps of Engineers and the Federal Highway Administration.

The plan creates a limited-access highway on the existing Redwood Road to 500 South in Woods Cross and then extends Redwood north through West Bountiful to Parrish Lane. The highway would then turn east onto Parrish Lane and proceed eastward across I -15 to the frontage road. It would turn north along the frontage road to Farmington where it would intersect with Highway 89.

Much could be said about the proposal's impact on the affected communities and its inability to meet transportation needs; however, I would like to focus on the process these special interest groups are using.

Land-use planning and development of community facilities traditionally are the responsibility of local governments through a local planning process. When regional improvements such as the Legacy Parkway are proposed, they go through a regional planning process in which local government leaders play a key role.

Through this process there is ample opportunity for input both by elected officials and the public.

The Citizens' Smart Growth Alternative was developed by an out-of-state consultant for these special-interest groups with no input whatsoever from any of the five cities it affects, even though it would seriously impact existing residential neighborhoods in the cities of North Salt Lake, Woods Cross, West Bountiful, Centerville and Farmington.

These groups presented their plan to the Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Highway Administration and urged them to designate it as a preferred alternative of the Legacy Parkway.

This is a blatant attempt by the Sierra Club and the Utahns for Better Transportation to advance their ideology by federalizing the local planning process. They are twisting the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act (wetland regulations) well beyond the purpose for which they were intended. They are using these laws to justify themselves acting as a region's planning authority.

They have created the Citizens' Smart Growth Alternative on the assumption that it conforms with NEPA and the Clean Water Act better than the plan that local officials have been working on for years. If this plan is adopted by the federal agencies it would be a serious shift away from local land use planning.

In reality, the battle over the Legacy Parkway is centered around who has the right to determine the future of this region - those elected to represent the people or a small group of elitists who think they know best for us all.

In the '70s, and '80s it was well-understood that governments with the word "democratic" in their name usually weren't very democratic. The same can be said for the Citizens' Smart Growth Alternative. How many citizens have had input into its development and actually how smart is it?

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Gary Uresk is city administrator for Woods Cross City.