Olympia Hills development: concerns raised about traffic and impact fees

SALT LAKE CITY – Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs is not against the new Olympia Hills development, planned for southwest Salt Lake County. He has significant issues, however, with the current designs for the 933-acre master-planned community near Herriman with businesses and 6,330 homes.

Chief among Staggs’ concerns is who would shoulder the estimated $40 million in impact fees that would be needed to maintain essential infrastructures like roads and sewers.

“The master development agreement that really governs how that proportionate share will be handled is incredibly vague. There’s no dollar amount mentioned, there’s no percentage. There’s nothing,” Staggs said after Tuesday afternoon’s meeting with his counterparts in the region.

He joined Bluffdale Mayor Derk Timothy and Herriman Mayor David Watts, as well as Herriman City Councilman Jared Henderson, to raise issues of traffic congestion along 12600 South.

“We have 30,000 cars a day average on 126th [South]. This development would place it around 90,000 or more cars a day. It really turns 126th South at least from Mountain View through Bangerter area into a freeway,” Staggs said.

Former Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams vetoed the original Olympia Hills development project in 2018, forcing developers to scale back the number of homes and add more open space.

However, the mayors and others who live nearby say the area cannot handle that many people, including those who will shop at the businesses.

The Salt Lake County Council is holding another public hearing on the project Tuesday evening.

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