Big transportation bill raises concerns about state control over Salt Lake City streets

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — A transportation bill passed by the Utah Senate on Thursday would put a moratorium on traffic-impacting projects in Utah’s Capitol City, which has many Democrats and city advocates worried that the state is prohibiting what Salt Lake can do with its streets.

Part of the four-thousand line bill — S.B. 195 — would put a pause between May 7 of this year and March 6, 2026, on road work that “when implemented may increase congestion for motor vehicles or discourage motor vehicles from driving on a particular highway.” The bill also requires the Utah Department of Transportation to study consolidating transportation services.

“A city may not create a highway reduction strategy or execute an existing highway reduction strategy, including the reduction or narrowing of traffic lanes, during a moratorium period,” the bill reads.

But Senate President Stuart Adams told reporters he doesn’t believe the bill would restrict the city from all projects.

“I want to be very clear, the bill does not preclude street work in Salt Lake City. It actually precludes the reduction of traffic flow through the city,” he said.

Debate surrounding the bill

The worry from some city transportation advocates is that this would even apply to things like installing a crosswalk in front of a school, but President Adams disagreed that it would apply in a situation like that.

“The way I read it is, you can make any improvement you want, you simply can’t restrict additional traffic flow,” he told reporters.

But when pressed on whether that means traffic construction on any small local neighborhood street, the President said, “I think it’s probably — yeah I’d have to look at it but I believe so.”

President Adams said the goal is to do a study on how closing 300 West for the downtown revitalization of the Delta Center could impact people getting into downtown.

“If you close 300 West, where do you put it?” Adams said. “It’s kind of a mess in that area and I think we need to look at it and I think that’s an effort to let the state go in and do a study,” he said.

Senator Jennifer Plumb, a Democrat who represents Salt Lake’s east side, said she thinks the state does have a role to play in looking into this but she wanted more time to talk to city stakeholders.

Salt Lake City leaders and the bill’s sponsor Sen. Wayne Harper (R – Taylorsville) met Friday afternoon but didn’t provide any specifics about how the bill could change.

“We had a very productive initial meeting with Salt Lake City and other stakeholders to better understand each other’s perspectives. I look forward to continuing these productive discussions next week to determine the best path forward,” Harper said.

Democrats reverse their votes

When the bill was heard on the Senate floor Thursday, there was little mention from Senate sponsor Wayne Harper of the moratorium portion of the bill — and there was no discussion on the substituted version.

Initially, most Senate Democrats voted in favor of that substituted version of the bill — but after reading it further, they later came back and reversed their votes.

“Republicans are playing games with important bills like S.B. 195, swapping in controversial amendments with little explanation, violating principles of transparency and in this case local control,” said one of those Democrats, Sen. Nate Blouin (D – South Salt Lake).

“After concerns were raised subsequent to SB 195 passing that the bill would severely infringe upon Salt Lake City’s authority to complete projects aimed at creating a safer community, myself and other members of my caucus immediately requested that we be registered as no votes. Such consequential language should not be slipped into a last-second amendment thousands of lines into a bill,” he said.

Gondola provisions

Another few lines in the bill appear to address the building of the Gondola up Little Cottonwood Canyon, though it’s not entirely clear what they mean.

Under a section titled, “Creation of Department of Transportation — Functions, powers, duties, rights, and responsibilities,” the bill adds the following lines:

“If the department constructs a project that requires an environmental impact statement, the department may only construct the project as provided in the record of decision associated with the environmental impact statement.”

UDOT’s record of decision for the Gondola was to build it. When asked about whether this provision paves the way for the Gondola to be built, Senate leadership said they didn’t know.

“We’ve got to re-read the bill number, so I’ll go look at it,” said President Adams.