After multiple back-and-forth changes, the final version of a bill that aims to give the Utah Department of Transportation veto power over some Salt Lake City traffic-calming projects passed both chambers of the Utah Legislature on Thursday.
The multipronged legislation, SB195, touches on a host of transportation issues, including wrong-way driving, air ambulances and funding for new infrastructure projects.
But a handful of clauses focused on Salt Lake City’s streets, inserted into the bill before its first passage in the Senate, captured the most attention. At least three different versions of the bill, including the final one, gave UDOT power to veto plans to slow down traffic on some streets in Utah’s capital.
The now-passed legislation requires city transportation officials to get UDOT approval for any projects that could slow down cars on major roads in central neighborhoods, calls for a study of all city traffic-calming changes and allows street plans that have been advertised to move forward without a review.
“We decided to go back to the language of dealing with arterials and collector highways, not just highways in general,” House sponsor Rep. Kay Christofferson, R-Lehi, said on the House floor Thursday morning. “So, it limited the scope a little bit of the plans that are made for the roadways, for the transportation throughout the city.”
Arterial (like 800 South) and collector (think 500 East) roads generally carry more traffic at higher speeds than neighborhood streets.
The bill limits UDOT’s oversight to south of 600 North, east of Foothill Drive, north of 2100 South and east of Interstate 15.
Earlier proposals had widened that power to all roads in Salt Lake City, and legislators’ first stab at the bill would’ve prohibited city officials from implementing any new traffic control measures, like stop signs, for a roughly yearlong period.
If the bill gets Gov. Spencer Cox’s signature, it would give state officials a say in Mayor Erin Mendenhall’s promised downtown Green Loop. The mayor plans to create a park on some of the city’s underutilized wide roads by cutting down on car lanes. At least four of the five roads under consideration for the loop would be subject to the new UDOT oversight.
“Salt Lake City’s number one request from residents for our roadways is more traffic-calming infrastructure,” Mendenhall spokesperson Andrew Wittenberg said in a statement. “… However, the premise of this bill is yet another example this session of the state intervening in matters that are better addressed by those elected by city residents. We are grateful that the bill’s sponsors worked with us to narrow its scope.”
The bill’s sponsors have argued further oversight of city roadwork is necessary because the projects can push more traffic onto state-owned highways, like State Street, and clog up the routes suburbanites take to get into downtown.
Opponents of the bill, like transportation advocacy group Sweet Streets, have criticized legislators for curtailing local control and introducing another layer of bureaucracy that could delay what they say are vital street improvements.