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SALT LAKE CITY — It now may take until Oct. 1 for the Legislature's Prison Relocation Commission to make a recommendation on where to move the Utah State Prison from Draper.
The commission had been scheduled to choose between proposed sites in Salt Lake, Utah and Tooele counties by Aug. 1. But at the commission's next meeting on July 16, the deadline is expected to be extended by as much as 60 days.
"It's more important to me to make a thoughtful and thorough decision rather than a quick one," the commission's co-chairman, House Majority Assistant Whip Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, said Wednesday.
A bill sponsored by Wilson in the 2015 Legislature set the Aug. 1 deadline for the commission to make a recommendation but also allows a one-month extension "as many times as the commission considers appropriate and necessary."
Wilson said the only action the commission is planning to take next week is to extend the deadline by either 30 or 60 days to give members more time to review a technical evaluation of the sites also on the agenda.
"There's just so much information, it's going to take more time for commissioners to get up to speed than just one meeting," Wilson said of the report looking at the topography, geology, infrastructure and other features of each of the four sites.
Consultant Bob Nardi said the report is "still a work in progress" but should provide enough information for the commission to come to a conclusion about which site is best suited for a new prison.
As for how long it will take the commission members to reach a conclusion, Nardi said, "that'll be up to them."
He said nothing has been found so far that "completely eliminates" any of the possible locations for the $550 million project identified earlier this year by the commission.
It's more important to me to make a thoughtful and thorough decision rather than a quick one.
–Rep. Brad Wilson
The sites being considered are in Salt Lake City west of Salt Lake City International Airport; in Eagle Mountain and Fairfield in Utah County; and in Grantsville, near the Wal-Mart distribution center in Tooele County.
All of the sites have significant community opposition, and there is a push for lawmakers to look at rebuilding the prison at its current location at Point of the Mountain.
But Wilson and other supporters of the move say the nearly 700 acres located in the so-called "Silicon Slopes" high-tech corridor along I-15 will have a big economic impact on the state, estimated by state consultants at $1.8 billion.
Rep. Merrill Nelson, R-Grantsville, has challenged that number and said he hopes an analysis he requested from legislative staff will be ready for the upcoming commission meeting.
"What I'm asking relates to the larger question of whether it makes financial sense to leave it where it is," Nelson said. He said lawmakers have been lacking a way to compare the current site to the proposed alternatives.
Nardi, who recently concluded from a cursory look at the Draper site that there wasn't enough room to rebuild a new prison there without significant additional expense, said he believes no more work is being done to study the site.
Related
New study gives insight into how prison sites chosen
A new study offers some insight into how five locations were chosen earlier this year as the top contenders for a relocation of the state prison.The final decision will be up to the Utah Legislature, and Gov. Gary Herbert has said he will call lawmakers into special session to vote on the commission's recommendation.
Wilson said despite the new deadline, the commission still "absolutely" anticipates a special session to select the site of a new prison rather than waiting until the 2016 Legislature begins in late January.
Heidi Balderree of Keep It In Draper said she has mixed feelings about the delay.
"Because I think it's a bad decision in general, I'm not anxious for it to be rushed," the Saratoga Springs resident said. But she said she worries the delay means more money will be spent on the search.
Acting Fairfield Mayor Peter Lawrence said the delay means more anxiety for him and the other residents of the tiny community of about 120 people in rural Utah County who don't want a prison nearby.
"If they keep dragging it out, they might as well put it on the ballot and let the people vote," Lawrence said. "I think everybody's anxious. We're hoping we don't get it, obviously. … I've got to keep biting my fingernails."
