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Show A Legacy of Conflict: Utah's Growth and the Legacy Highway Brigham Daniels sion. In a June 7, 1998 letter to Jon Nepstad of the Wasatch Front Regional Council, Carter outlines the 404 guidelines: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Section 404 (b) (1) Guidelines...obligates the Corps to permit only the least damaging, practicable alternative. Under the Guidelines, an alternative is considered practicable if, given the overall purpose and need, the alternative is capable of being done after taking into consideration cost, existing technology and logistics.... First, the applicant must demonstrate that it is not possible to avoid impacting the wetland. Then alternatives that minimize impacting the wetland must be considered. No discharge will be permitted if there is a practicable alternative available that avoids impacts to the aquatic environment. The Section 404 guidelines are the source of much conflict. These guidelines are the Corps' bread-and-butter; they give the Corps a purpose and a duty. But the municipalities despise these guidelines, which in their minds seem to place a higher value on land than on people. To make matters more complex, this regulation is important to the Environmental Coalition. The Coalition hopes that these guidelines can protect the wetlands and the environment broadly. Some people in the Coalition also hope that these guidelines will stop the Legacy Highway. FHWA wants to uphold the guidelines because they are a federal mandate. The Governor's Office and UDOT are frustrated by the mandate that makes finding a compromise route nearly impossible. Three other laws play a part, though not as prominently as NEPA and Section 404. The first of these is the Endangered Species Act. An endangered species, the peregrine falcon has nested in the Great Salt Lake's wetlands for several decades. The bald eagle, a threatened species, uses the area for both nesting and as a roosting area in the winter (Valentine 1996a). The final two pieces of legislation are somewhat interconnected, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) and the Clean Air Act. ISTEA legislation attempts to make decision-makers look closely at the consequences of building roads, and at alternatives "including all available options to reduce motor vehicle and especially single occupancy travel" (Adler 1996).2 ISTEA legislation ties in closely to an aspect of the Clean Air Act which is a regulating mechanism, called National Ambient Air Quality Standards. These standards set a maximum level of pollution acceptable in a given region (Moyer 1991, 1). ISTEA "regulations expressly prohibit the use of federal funds in Clean Air Act nonattainment and maintenance areas for transportation-related pollutants (which includes Davis, Salt Lake and Utah Counties) ... unless the project results from a congestion management system" (Adler 1996). In other words, if the highway will result in more air pollution in non-compliant areas, roads are not an option. These laws are important to the Environmental Coalition. It hopes that this legislation will stop the Legacy Project and instead provide an alternative incorporating mass 2 Adler cites 23 CFR Sections 450.200, 450.208, 450.322, 500.50.3, 500.507. transit. UDOT and FHWA will have to consider these laws in order to avoid a lawsuit. The effects of the State's inability to perform regional planning play a major role in the Legacy Project. The State has charged local governments with land use decisions to "provide for the health safety and welfare ... ['Jprotect property values... [and] foster the state's agricultural and other industries'" (Utah Critical Land Commission 1997, 6). The Environmental Coalition supports regional planning because it might rein in urban sprawl. The cities see it as a threat to their autonomy. UDOT gave several indications that it would welcome regional planning, but it is not advocating it. Politically this is not an issue the Governor wants to address. Davis County and the municipalities within it have some policies that will influence the options and shape of the Legacy Project. These groups have made decisions without a central regional policy. Low-density zoning is not only an inefficient and expensive way to build a community (Shaping Livable Communities Steering Committee 1996, Resource Conservation 4), but also had precluded many land use decisions (Roodman .1996, 41). The county and cities have not planned as if the West Davis Transportation Corridor were to be developed, so transportation planners and policy makers are trying to find a place for the Legacy Project. Low-density zoning has its problems, but still it is politically popular. The cities and the County stand by it. The Environmental Coalition, particularly Future Moves Coalition, sees it as a barrier to alternative modes of transportation and a destructive ingredient of urban sprawl. Although there are many practical reasons to move beyond the status quo in Utah, and indeed the federal laws might even force us to do so, many of the issues presented in the debate over the Legacy Project are hot button issues. Increasing the gas tax, beginning regional planning, integrating land-use planning with transportation planning, and forcing people out of their cars and onto mass transit may make sense on paper, but these are scary issues politically. Building the Legacy Highway is a way of maintaining the status quo. Like our past transportation decisions that have tried to accommodate vehicle transportation demand, this decision will not significantly alter transportation decisions to follow. UDOT relies on the status quo of building roads to maintain its existence; it does not play a role in building mass transit. The Governor may feel that maintaining the status quo is an ingredient to his political success. The cities want a road, not mass transit. People in Davis County enjoy the convenience of cars. FHWA and the Corps probably place less emphasis on the status quo. These organizations want to get the job done, without any thought of the status quo. The Environmental Coalition dislikes the status quo. Actually, the effect of building roads to accommodate sprawl on the environment has united the Coalition. 56 |
