Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY -- The Salt Lake City Council plans to scale back upgrades for the Grand Boulevard North Temple project. Instead, the massive renovation to North Temple may only stretch as far as Redwood Road.
At Tuesday night's council meeting, it all came down to who would pay for what.
The city had asked residents and businesses to contribute to the project with property taxes. City engineer John Naser says about 90 percent of people on the west side said no.
Chris Reynolds is one of them. "We pay enough taxes as it is," he said. "If they'd budget it in it'd be nice, but still, a lot of people are struggling nowadays and they can't pay the taxes."
The change also comes after 44 percent of property owners west of Redwood Road submitted written protests because of a $105-per-foot cost for upgrades, including new streetlights and landscaping. So now, the improvements will only include the segment between 600 West and Redwood Road instead of stretching to 2400 West.
The city says it cannot legally make changes without approval from a majority of taxpayers. Salt Lake City will pay for approximately $23 million of the projected $24.2 million dollar budget. Tuesday, the city council voted unanimously to collect the remaining $1.2 million through assessments levied against property owners along the street.
E-mail: niyamba@ksl.com
