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ST. GEORGE - Hearings
resume today in the U.S. Senate on a bill that pits pro-growth Washington County commissioners and developers
against those who fear it will add tens of thousands more residents to what
already is one of the nation's fastest growing areas.
Utah Sen. Bob Bennett and Rep. Jim Matheson are trying to
push their multifaceted land bill through the lame-duck Congress before
January. When the Democrats take over leadership, the likelihood of passage
plunges for the measure, which could lead to the sale of 25,000 acres of
public lands to private interests.
At least two local politicians - Commissioner Alan Gardner
and his brother, Larry Gardner, who sits on the St. George City Council -
could have a financial interest in the outcome of the legislation.
Environmentalists, some local officials and residents
oppose the plan, which also outlines a route for a new highway through
tortoise habitat in the Red Cliffs Desert Preserve that potentially could
link a development in which the Gardner
brothers have a financial interest and land they own to Interstate 15.
Proponents argue the bill is necessary for Utah's Dixie to grow
and defines such things as utility rights of way as well as wilderness.
Without it, land-use planning will be determined piecemeal in lawsuits, they
contend. And everyone will suffer.
In a statement Tuesday, Bennett explained that the number
of acres to be transferred from public to private sectors could be far less
than 25,000. In addition, the so-called northern corridor highway could pass
through tortoise habitat areas only after study and approval by the secretary
of Interior.
About 84 percent of Washington County
is federal land, said Alan Gardner, who helped frame the legislation. He
maintains there is an important need to transfer some of that land to private
control.
"We don't anticipate that it would all become
rooftops," he said. "But we do need to broaden our tax base and
this resolves a lot of issues."
Gardner is to testify today
in favor of the bill before the Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands
and Forests.
Gardner and his brother have a financial interest in the
development of the Ledges housing development near Snow Canyon
on the west side of St. George and own other property in the area. The
proposed highway could run from Interstate 15 north of St. George through the
Red Cliffs Desert Preserve to near the Gardners' property that
straddles State Route 18.
Bruce Wilson, a Washington
City resident, questions whether the
Gardners
would benefit personally from the bill by boosting land values.
Larry and Alan Gardner say that if the highway is
constructed, it won't be for years and their land will already be developed.
But Wilson
said his broader point is whether the Gardners and
others tied to real estate and development who are
behind the bill can separate personal benefit from the interest of the county
as a whole.
Although Springdale Realtor Lin Alder wasn't invited to
testify, he also will be in Washington,
D.C., today, working behind the
scenes in an effort to convince lawmakers not to endorse the bill. He will
carry a petition signed by about 1,700 Washington County
residents asking senators to hold off on passing the legislation.
Alder, who heads up a community group called Citizens for
Dixie's Future, said the process that gave rise to Bennett's proposal was
flawed and it would dramatically increase growth in Washington County.
"The bill was dreamed up by a select few and is not a
community plan. That's why the community doesn't buy it."
Although the municipalities of Santa
Clara, Enterprise, La Verkin and Hurricane have endorsed the bill, Rockville, Virgin and Springdale have voted against it. The towns
of Ivins, Washington
City, Leeds, St. George and Toquerville have
not endorsed the legislation, but have not voiced opposition either.
The proposal has fostered debate among Washington County
residents like never before, Alder said. An outgrowth has been an all-inclusive
general planning process called Vision Dixie instigated by the Nature
Conservancy, among others.
"We want a better plan for Washington County,"
Alder said. "Our simple request is to give us time to complete Vision
Dixie" before federal legislation is passed.
Bennett, however, argues that his legislation is
"complementary" to Vision Dixie. Those asking to hold off until
Vision Dixie is completed really only want to "stall or kill this
bill," he said.
Although the Washington County Commission sought to be
inclusive when first defining the proposal, critics say the open process got
sidetracked. Somewhere along the line, a 20-member working collaborative was
dissolved without the knowledge of environmentalists, said one of its
members, Scott Groene, executive director of the
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
"The group was created to see if there could be some
agreement. But it was disbanded and there never was any real
collaboration," he said. "There are numerous problems with this bill.
It was drafted behind closed doors."
Groene said the legislation is
"a rip-off of taxpayers, terrible for wilderness," and will result
in "sprawl on steroids."
But Alan Gardner defends the process for public
participation. "We had a major process with public input," he said.
"It's a good compromise. We ended up with a lot more wilderness than I
thought we would have."
The bill identifies 221,000 acres to become federally
protected wilderness. However, 123,743 of them are within Zion National Park
and already protected.
The legislation also sets aside for preservation 170 miles
of the Virgin River and its tributaries as a Wild and Scenic River.
St. George Mayor Dan McArthur said the bill is necessary
for the county to move forward because, among other things, it helps define
wilderness, riparian areas and utility and transportation corridors.
For McArthur's city, the proposed northern bypass highway
between I-15 and State Route 18 is essential to relieve traffic snarls.
"We've got a lot of congestion and we need an
alternate route," he said. "It's always been in our master plan but
the preserve has interfered with it."
To a broader extent, the legislation will help define for Washington County cities what they can and cannot
do, McArthur noted.
"Anytime we turn around in Washington County
we have environmental groups suing us. We tend to have things pushed down our
throats because there is so much federal land."
About 40 percent of the county's 140,000 residents have
moved to Washington
County since 2000. Some
projections say the population will grow to about 350,000 in the next 25
years without additional private lands, said Springdale Mayor Pat Cluff, who opposes the land bill.
Selling public land for development would lead to further
population growth and would make necessary a proposed water pipeline from Lake Powell
to Washington County, she said. That, in turn, would
result in even more population.
"I'm not against growth. We're going to have it
anyway," she said. "But we want to protect the things that are the
reasons people come here - to have air quality and see the stars and it's
quiet here."
csmart@sltrib.com
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