As decision looms closer, Utahns raise their voices in opposition to Little Cottonwood Canyon gondola

SANDY, Utah — Residents like Barry Petersen need to get away from the concept of placing a gondola in Little Cottonwood Canyon.

“On these powder days, we shut the canyon from 6 to eight and solely let buses go up and down,” he mentioned. “If that had been the case, if it had been a bus that was going to go up and get you forward of all these individuals down there within the automobiles, individuals would journey that bus.”

Dialogue of the Regional Transportation Plan that features the gondola wasn’t even on the Wasatch Entrance Regional Council’s assembly agenda Thursday. But everybody who acquired as much as converse talked in regards to the gondola, and everybody mentioned they don’t need it.

“It is wonderful that the taxpayers of this state would need to finance this gondola that solely goes as much as these two resorts,” mentioned Petersen. “How many individuals on this state ski? How many individuals on this state can afford to ski?”

The gondola’s estimated value ranges from a whole lot of hundreds of thousands to multiple billion {dollars}.

“There’s a massive discrepancy within the cash allotted, billions of {dollars}, on this plan,” mentioned Carl Fisher, Govt Director of Save Our Canyons. “And if it’ll a gondola, it is not going to your neighborhood.”

Though there are lots of Utahns who don’t ski, hike or go up into the canyon in any respect, taxpayers ought to care about the place their cash goes, mentioned Fisher.

“Individuals care,” he mentioned. “It isn’t saying, ‘Do not clear up the issues.’ We all know we’ve got issues. It is about how we clear up these issues, and whether or not it is taking place with us or to us.”

Though they weren’t current at Thursday’s assembly, Snowbird and Ski Utah have been vocal about their assist of the gondola, saying that it’s the one strategy to clear up the site visitors issues in Little Cottonwood Canyon.

The general public remark interval for the RTP resulted in February. The WFRC will decide to undertake the plan or not at their subsequent assembly on Might twenty fifth.