SALT LAKE CITY (AP) _ The Army Corps of Engineers has granted a permit to destroy wetlands in Davis County for the proposed Legacy Highway, but lawsuits challenging the project are expected to be filed within days.
Corps spokesman Jim Taylor said the agency faxed the permit to Utah Department of Transportation Director Tom Warne late Tuesday.
"We're probably going to file (a lawsuit) and have a press conference Thursday," Sierra Club spokesman Marc Heileson said.
Numerous groups want to sue to stop construction, and they are discussing whether to file a unified suit or separate complaints, Heileson said.
The lawsuit will emphasize the importance of building transit systems before building the highway, Heileson said. That follows an EPA letter issued last week questioning whether the highway is a better solution than transit. EPA Regional Administrator William Yellowtail cited other concerns, including that the chosen alignment is not the legally required, least-damaging option, but he chose not to stop the project.
Davis County commissioners hailed the approval as a step toward relieving traffic congestion between Salt Lake City and Farmington.
"Given the tremendous growth that Davis County and northern Utah have experienced recently and will undergo in the next 20 years, the parkway will be sorely needed, as will improvements to Interstate 15 and the Utah Transit Authority system," the commissioners said in a written statement.
"We find it unfortunate that a group of organizations representing a relatively small number of people have warned they will now fight the approval of the ... permit in the courts," they said.
Utahns for Better Transportation, a coalition of Legacy opponents, intends to continue to challenge the project.
"Our hope is that we can work amicably to achieve a good resolution for all the citizens of the Wasatch Front. If we can't reach an amicable solution, the case will be decided by the courts," said Craig Galley, an attorney for the coalition.
Galley said his group wants the state to recognize the expansion of I-15 in the northern corridor has reduced freeway congestion, and the state now has four to five years of good traffic flow, time it can use to implement a robust transit system such as commuter rail or a modern hybrid of it.
"To build the freeway now ... we are going to foreclose many possibilities of having an optimum transportation system in the future," he said.
(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
