SALT LAKE CITY — Some of the biggest growth in Utah is happening in the southern part of Salt Lake County and the northern part of Utah County.
But there isn't any mass transit there.
"There is not a single bus stop in Herriman, Riverton or Bluffdale area," said Rep. Candice Pierucci. "And we are the fastest growing area of Salt Lake County."
Rep. Pierucci, R-Riverton, who represents those communities in the Utah State Legislature, introduced a bill that could force Utah Transit Authority to provide bus service to those communities and others across the Wasatch Front. House Bill 430 would rework some tax dollars that go into transit funds to offer communities across Utah grants to fund some transit options as they work to convince transit authorities to expand.
"Those cities are responding to the state's call to put in more housing, but the infrastructure is not there to meet it and UTA has not been responsive in getting those areas," Rep. Pierucci told FOX 13 News.
At Wednesday's hearing before the House Transportation Committee, other lawmakers noted of a lack of mass transit service in their districts.
"In my area? We don’t have service on the west side of my district," said Rep. Karen Peterson, R-Clinton. "My district's very populated. We have a new highway, but we don’t have a lot of service."
Rep. Pierucci argued that communities pay into funds that ultimately make their way toward transit, but they aren't seeing any buses going down their roads.
Jay Fox, the executive director of Utah Transit Authority (the state's largest transit agency), said it isn't that they don't want to provide service.
"We want more transit across the board and that’s what we’re committed to," he told the committee.
But Fox said they have to prioritize demand across the Wasatch Front and there are funding limits. He argued that HB 430 takes money for new service from existing routes. The $7 million going out of one fund under the bill would go somewhere else.
"To give you an example of that? Let’s take a bus route that’s a half hour frequency, a mile round trip. That’s about a million dollars, so that means we’re going to have to move seven bus routes from existing service," Fox said.
UTA does offer an on-demand shuttle service for the south end of the Salt Lake Valley and it is seeing good numbers of riders, which is promising for bus service soon, Fox told committee members. They are also doing more long-term planning that could include these communities.
But the mayors of some communities with little to no transit options lined up to support Rep. Pierucci's bill.
"This is a necessary thing," said Vineyard Mayor Julie Fullmer, who also serves on UTA's advisory council.
Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs has had a long-running gripe with UTA over the lack of service. He detailed his community's problems to FOX 13 News in 2022. In his testimony to the House Transportation Committee, Mayor Staggs said he saw no signs UTA was willing to provide a bus to his community.
"Out of the $1.3 billion capital projects plan, there was effectively zero money to the southwest quadrant," he said, accusing UTA of ignoring a citizen survey that said people wanted more west side and south side bus service in Salt Lake County.
Herriman Mayor Lorin Palmer said his community is building high-density housing, but there's no transit to get them to their jobs.
"We have developers wanting to plan for these centers that would be focused on a transit stop. We don’t know what to tell them," he told the committee.
Some lawmakers on the committee expressed concern about the bill upending funding and ending service in other areas where UTA is widely used.
"I'm just looking at the reality of UTA and the demands they have on funding," said Committee Chair Kay Christofferson, R-Lehi.
Fox pointed out in the meeting that Salt Lake City contributes 30% to Salt Lake County's transit tax revenue, while the communities in the southwest part of the county were about 2%. Following the hearing, Rep. Pierucci still argued "this area and other areas are not getting a return on their investment."
The bill passed out of committee on a 6-3 vote and now heads to the full House of Representatives. Rep. Pierucci said she is willing to continue to negotiate with UTA and other transit providers for solutions. Fox said UTA was scheduled to meet with many community mayors soon to discuss options.
