Proponents of the Rio Grande Plan — a proposal to put rail lines underground and reopen the west side of Salt Lake City — are urging Gov. Spencer Cox to veto a provision quietly added to a budget bill that transfers the historic Rio Grande Depot, a linchpin of the plan, to the University of Utah.

For several years, advocates for burying the rail lines that divide the east and west sides of Salt Lake City have been trying to recruit support and funding from state leaders for the ambitious proposal. The Rio Grande depot is critical to the plan, serving as a transit hub and anchor to the vision.

Christian Lenhart, a civil engineer and leading voice for the proposal, said proponents were concerned that, because the transfer of the depot to the university was slipped into a massive budget bill so late in the session without any discussion, “this was done with bad intentions and someone was trying to derail the prospect of using the train station as a depot again.”

He said state officials have since assured him that’s not the case, and the depot could be used as a transit hub in the future, but Lenhart says giving the building to the university creates an unnecessary obstacle, right as momentum was building for the Rio Grande Plan.

“It’s taking a step down the wrong path,” he said. “Our hope is that [Cox would] pump the brakes on this and use the line-item veto to make the transfer not go through.”

Cox appears unlikely to do that, however. His office had advocated giving the building to the university, and he said last week that he does not see it as a deal-breaker

“I don’t see it as a threat to [the Rio Grande Plan] at all,” he said during a news conference. “People forget the University of Utah is part of Utah. We’re not selling this to a private entity. It’s still part of the state, and as those plans are developed, if we’re able to get funding to do something like that … we would work with the University of Utah to do that. They’re aware of those potential plans and this would not prohibit that at all.”

The depot was built in 1910 and was a prominent station on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and purchased by the state in 1977. Amtrak moved out of the depot in 1999.

In 2020, the depot was damaged by a 5.7 magnitude earthquake that knocked chunks of plaster from the walls. It has been under repair since. Cox said those repairs have cost the state considerably more than anticipated.

Transferring the building to the university, he said, ensures that it doesn’t sit empty. “So I not only do not see this as in opposition to what they’re proposing,” Cox said, “this will actually help us in the long run.”

The language giving the depot to the university was contained in two portions of the 100-page bill, neither of which mentioned the building by name. It passed in the final week of the legislative session and caught proponents of the Rio Grande Plan by surprise.

Jason Perry, vice president of government relations at the University of Utah, said transferring the depot was an “opportunity that came at a good time” and creates a number of research and educational opportunities for the school.

“The University of Utah is thrilled to have it and take care of it, and our interests in it are largely programmatic,” he said.

While things are not yet finalized, one option for the depot could be a drone test and certification facility, Perry said. “There’s an amazing need for that.”

The building remains a state facility, he said, meaning that, if the state wants to use it for another purpose in the future, that remains an option.

During the session, plan supporters pressed lawmakers to pay for a study by the Kem Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah to quantify the costs, benefits and feasibility of burying the rail lines, but were unsuccessful.

A previous study by Utah State University researchers reported that sinking the rail crossings and opening the developable land would cost between $3 billion and $5 billion, but would add more than $7.8 billion to the state’s gross domestic product, create more than 51,800 jobs, open up land for 2,700 new housing units and produce $3.2 billion in commercial output annually.

Lenhart said that while the transfer “doesn’t permanently derail it, it adds an extra layer of coordination that needs to happen.”

“If we transfer ownership to the university,” he added, “they have no interest in sharing an asset that is theirs.”

Note to readers, 1:45 p.m. • This story has been updated to include a comment from a University of Utah official.