Farmington • Over the past five years, many young families have settled into new subdivisions that sprang up on this historic city's west side. That growth has made the selection of a West Davis transportation corridor increasingly necessary — and difficult.

Residents in the subdivisions of Hunters Creek and neighboring Quail Crossing in Kaysville have encouraged Utah's Department of Transportation to "go west" in their route selection.

"That alternative has to start at Glovers Lane and go as far west as possible" — beyond anything UDOT has sketched on its map, said Go West campaign spokesman James Burton.

UDOT has now narrowed 64 options to three, labeled A, B and C. In Farmington, two options remain — the Shepard Lane connection and farther southwest, the Glover Lane connection.

The Shepard Lane option paves over 10 homes in Hunters Creek, while the Glover Lane route would wipe out a similar number in the Ranches subdivision farther west.

Go West supporters reject both routes, instead advocating that UDOT pave over wetlands along the Great Salt Lake shoreline rather than demolishing homes in their neighborhoods.

Such a move would invite environmental lawsuits, said Farmington Mayor Scott Harbertson, and has no chance for approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The proposed 25-mile corridor will extend from Farmington in Davis County north to either 2100 South or 1200 South in Weber County, to relieve congestion on Interstate 15.

UDOT officials say they have been inundated with suggestions during the current public comment period that ends March 25.

"We've received thousands of comments . . . with answers as varied as the stars in the sky," said UDOT public involvement manager Vic Saunders. "That makes it a viable process."

UDOT Project Manager Randy Jefferies agrees.

"Nobody understands these communities as well as those who live here," Jefferies said, "so it brings new information to the process and helps us minimize and balance the impact."

Go West organizer Christine Peck offers that brand of first-hand insight.

"From my house to my child's school it's 1.6 miles. They can ride bikes or walk," Peck said. "If this goes in, it will take seven miles (to get to school) and they'll have to be bused."

According to Peck, more than 500 children could be affected.

The Shepard Lane connection — which parallels Interstate 15 to Park Lane — was the city's preferred alignment in 1995, Harbertson said.

A few years back, UDOT told the city that option would not work, Harbertson said, so officials shifted allegiance to the Glover Lane connection which feeds into I-15 farther south.

However, the agency recently reinstated a modified Shepard Lane connection, which Farmington's City Council re-endorsed last month.

Residents farther north in Syracuse also worry about UDOT's final three.

"Right now its a fight between farmlands vs. wetlands," said Dorathy Law, an owner of the 400-acre Black Island Farms.

"We grow vegetables, not houses. It's a hard living but we love it," Law said of the four generations of relatives who devoted their lives to working the land. Each year, thousands of schoolchildren tour their farm, she added.

In 2001, Law's family fought for the Bluff Road connection, a jog in the road that UDOT has since scrapped.

The remaining routes bisect their fields, "making it virtually impossible to farm," Law said. Those options would also wipe out the county's last operating dairy, she added.

Her warning to decision-makers: "Once you take farmland away, you can't take it back."

UDOT's Jefferies said that staff will now digest the multitude of comments to fine-tune the agency's remaining routes.

"We'll study those in detail," Jefferies said, "so we can provide a recommendation in the draft Environmental Impact Study." That document should be released early next year.

Farmington resident Matt Gore, a civil designer who said he offered detail for the Shepard Lane connection that helped put it back on the table, hopes for a reasonable solution to what at times has become an emotional debate.

"This has been a sensitive issue on our city's docket for a long time," Gore said. "At this point we're encouraging people to educate themselves and make smart comments that are factual."

cmckitrick@sltrib.com —

West Davis Corridor

Public comment on three alternatives advanced by the Utah Department of Transportation ends March 25.

Opinions can be expressed by phone, 877-298-1991, by e-mail to westdavis@utah.gov, online at udot.utah.gov/westdavis or by mail to West Davis Corridor, 466 N. 900 West, Kaysville, UT 84037.

Those comments will be used to select one preferred route.

A draft Environmental Impact Study will be released in early 2012, followed by another round of formal open houses.

Work on the final Environmental Impact Study will continue through fall 2012 with a record of decision expected by spring 2013.

UDOT has no funding to build the West Davis Corridor. Costs are projected at $400 million to $525 million depending on the final route.

Source: Randall Jefferies, UDOT project manager