ST. GEORGE, Utah — Four years after the federal government under one president approved the right-of-way for a highway connecting Washington City to St. George, federal officials under another administration reversed that decision last week, saying the highway would violate environmental laws.
Now, local and state leaders are fighting back while remaining in a battle with groups that want to protect threatened animals and plants.
More than 15 years after the Northern Corridor was first proposed, the fiery nerves on both sides were as strong as ever in a Wednesday town hall concerning the proposed highway in the Washington County Commission chambers.
“That’s bull____!,” Washington County Commissioner Victor Iverson yelled back after a constituent in the standing-room-only meeting accused him of “trying to do away” with the Legacy Park Fairgrounds while arguing he is pro-development.
“That’s not bull____,” the constituent replied.
The dialogue continued back and forth, and it wasn’t the only yelling match as commissioners and Washington County Attorney Eric Clarke presented their case for the highway, taking questions for more than two hours.
The Northern Corridor would be a four-lane highway creating a more direct connection between St. George and Washington City.
Depending on which side someone is on, the 2009 law signed by President Obama that created the Red Cliffs National Conservation area either mandated the Bureau of Land Management to approve the highway or consider it.
That question is at the heart of both a lawsuit by the environmental group Conserve Southwest Utah to stop the highway and a lawsuit by Washington County against the federal government for trying to stop it.
Whether the federal government, which owns the land the highway would run through, has approved or disapproved the highway has come down to who is in the White House.
The Bureau of Land Management under former President Trump approved it in late 2020. Last Friday, the same BLM under President Biden denied it, saying in its “final” report that the highway would violate at least five environmental laws if built.
“It feels like Groundhog Day because here we are starting over again,” Clarke said.
“This is frustrating,” Washington County Commissioner Adam Snow added. “It's really frustrating to have an administration that looks at years of the environmental work that the last administration, the BLM and the Fish and Wildlife Service did before.”
Along with county officials, condemnation of the BLM’s denial of the Utah Department of Transportation’s application for the highway has come from local, state, and national circles.
Gov. Spencer Cox condemned it Tuesday, as did St. George Mayor Michele Randall, Rep. Celeste Maloy and Sen.-elect John Curtis.
And while Clarke usually spends his time trying criminal cases, he says there’s a reason he’s involved.
“My job is to represent the county. So when my clients, which are the commissioners, listen to their experts, which are the traffic engineers and the biologists, and they say this is the decision that makes the most sense,” Clarke said. “We advocate for that. Personally, I've been working on this project for 10 years.”
But those opposing the highway say there are two reasons they say the project shouldn’t move forward. The threatened desert tortoise and the endangered dwarf bearclaw poppy flower.
“For one, the Mojave Desert Tortoise is a keystone species. And so their burrows actually provide shade and protection for lots of other animals,” said Wendy Womack with Conserve Southwest Utah. “Once you take them out of the equation, you put a lot of other animals at risk.”
Snow said because of the area’s hilly geography, there isn’t a direct route between Washington City and St. George. He said that has caused traffic jams at the entries to Interstate 15.
“You can't put any more road in there,” Snow said. “We have used every available inch.”
However, some local recreation groups don’t want any paving in the open space, and environmentalists are also concerned about the threatened desert tortoise.
Womack believes a highway won’t solve any traffic problems.
“The highway in the long run will not help with traffic because of a principle called induced demand,” she said. “The idea of that is when you build more roads it attracts more cars to those roads and so you end up with more traffic than what you started with.”
But Snow says the deal that was already in place has the area around the new highway, known as Zone 3, retaining most of the tortoise habitat. In turn, the School Institutional Trust Lands Administration has agreed to turn over land to the southwest, known as Zone 6, to the federal government as a protected area for the tortoise. Without the highway, Snow says SITLA plans to sell that land to developers.
“I have a 9-year-old daughter. 150-ish acres to almost 7,000 acres. She can do that math,” Snow said. “The School Institutional Trust Lands Administration is serious as a heart attack on this.”
Snow and other government leaders said there isn’t a compromise with environmental groups that don’t have a Northern Corridor and are hopeful the new presidential administration will turn the pendulum.
From her side, Womack doesn't see a compromise with the highway.
“I don't see a future in which the Northern Corridor Highway is beneficial for our community here in Washington County.”
