LAYTON -- Details of a revised design for Main Street in Layton were released Tuesday, but Layton business owners think a few more changes are needed.In a meeting held by Layton city officials, City Community Development Director Bill Wright showed property owners recent changes to the plan, which is part of the $97 million south Layton interchange project.
With the new design, businesses on the east side of Main Street will maintain much of their parking, but the state plans to install a center median that will prohibit access to some of the businesses.
"We're not happy," said Kevin Goble, owner of Main Street Service and Sales Sinclair station, which is on the west side of Main, just north of Gentile Street.
"With that median, northbound traffic just isn't going to be able to turn in here. That's significant to us."
The Utah Department of Transportation originally planned to expand Main Street in old downtown Layton by three blocks, from the interchange in the southern part of the city north to Church Street.
After the final Environmental Impact Statement for the initial design was completed last fall, business owners along Main Street had two main concerns with the original design: the loss of business parking and the center median.
In the new plan, UDOT plans accommodate businesses by allowing U-turns at two intersections: Main Street at Gentile and Church streets.
Goble, who has run the Sinclair station for 23 years, said that idea is not realistic.
"First of all, it's dangerous," he said of the state's U-turn solution.
"Second, we have enormous tankers coming into our business. How are they going to make a U-turn? It's impossible."
UDOT Region One spokesman Vic Saunders said the Main Street redesign is "evolving every day" and some fine-tuning still needs to be completed, but the center median is necessary for safety and traffic flow.
Saunders said motorists may make U-turns at Gentile on a protected green turn light and that similar designs have worked safely on other roads throughout the state.
"We need the median to prevent left-hand turns into conflicting traffic patterns," Saunders said. "It's both a safety issue and an issue of making sure traffic flows."
Landowner Cornelius Delight said he also opposes the median idea.
"UDOT has done a lot to work with us, and we appreciate that, but there are still some flaws with the design," he said.
"They need to get rid of the median. Riverdale Road doesn't have one. Washington Boulevard doesn't have one. Why do we need it?"
Saunders said unease over a center median isn't new.
"There were originally some concerns with the median we installed on Antelope Drive by the hospital (Davis Hospital & Medical Center), but it works well now. People will get used to the idea and make it work for them."
As for the parking, most of it will remain with the Layton business owners. However, UDOT will re-examine traffic flow on the road in 10 years, at which time the state could deem it necessary to take it away.
There had been some dispute as to whether the business owners owned the parking area, or if it was part of the right of way owned by the state.
Wright said after some "serious historical research," the state believes "the parking is not owned by the property owners."
UDOT will release a detailed map of the redesign in another public meeting Oct. 14 in the Layton City Municipal Office, 437 N. Wasatch Drive.
In the next few weeks, utility work will begin on Main Street. Major reconstruction on the street, including new curbs, gutters, sidewalks and decorative lighting, will begin in the spring.
UDOT officials said the entire south Layton interchange project will be finished by December 2010. During construction, area businesses will remain open, and so will the southbound on-ramp to Interstate 15.
Layton interchange/Main Street
Original design:
* Eight-lane roadway
* Limited parking on east side of Main Street
* Center median
* Unresolved ownership of parking area on east side of street
* Built to accommodate 2030 traffic projections
New design:
* Five-lane roadway
* Angled parking at curb on east side of Main Street
* Two-way parking aisle
* Improved pedestrian crossing at Main and Gentile
* Center median
* State owns parking area
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