The governor already has signed off on a preliminary agreement. While the majority party caucuses that will take it up don't have any authority to sign or defeat the proposal at this point, Huntsman will use them to gauge support, said his spokeswoman, Tammy Kikuchi.
"The governor really would like to see Legacy built," she said. "The governor would like to know that there is support."
Sen. Sheldon Killpack heads a committee - composed of legislators, Utah Department of Transportation officials, members of the governor's staff and the plaintiffs in the 2001 lawsuit that halted highway completion - that will preview any settlement.
On Tuesday, the Syracuse Republican said the committee wanted the preliminary agreement struck after nine months of negotiations between UDOT and the Utah chapter of the Sierra Club and Utahns for Better Transportation to be palatable to lawmakers who ultimately would be asked to appropriate funds for the settlement. He indicated the committee was near its goal.
"I'm not looking at this as, 'Man, what a huge Christmas gift,' " Killpack said. "You have some players on both sides who would love to unholster and come out shooting. But that hasn't gotten us anywhere. . . . We're all at a point where we recognize it's time to move on."
Killpack wouldn't disclose details. But if all goes well, he said, the governor would call an October special session to pass a settlement resolution and "we should see dirt flying by next spring."
Sierra Club spokesman Marc Heileson said negotiations, revived a week or so ago after stalling amid surreptitious political moves, were still under way Tuesday. If the Legislature approves and funds the final compact, the monetary details of which have not been disclosed, the plain- tiffs would end their litigation, he said.
The 100-mile Legacy Highway, proposed by former Gov. Mike Leavitt to alleviate Wasatch Front traffic north of Salt Lake City, includes a 14-mile portion known as the Legacy Parkway that would run from Farmington to the capital city between Interstate 15 and the Great Salt Lake.
The conservation groups sued to stop the parkway project. In November 2001 the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals halted construction after finding UDOT's environmental impact study unacceptable.
UDOT estimates that the project, initially expected to cost around $451 million, is now climbing toward $690 million.
The citizens' groups have said their alternative would cost hundreds of millions of dollars less, would save more than 80 acres of wetlands and decrease commute times. The two sides decided to try for a compromise, and have been negotiating since January.
Meanwhile, UDOT's Washington lobbyist helped draft a proposed addition to a congressional transportation bill that would have blocked future lawsuits over Legacy's environmental studies, according to e-mails obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune in July.
The end-run provision failed last month to make it into the bill despite efforts by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, but relations between UDOT and environmentalists foundered until this month.
What's next
* Republican legislative caucus today will indicate whether there is support for a settlement in the Legacy Highway lawsuit.
l If there is, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. could call a special session of the Legislature in October for formal approval.
l If the Legislature OKs the settlement and appropriates money, construction could begin again in the spring.
See LEGACY, B2
Legacy could
resume by spring
