Why is the Northern Corridor so controversial?

ST. GEORGE, Utah — The Northern Corridor is a proposed four-lane highway that would run just north of St. George. The project has long been controversial due to its proposed passage through the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve. 

Planners proposed the highway as a way to accommodate east-to-west travel between I-15 and SR-18, per the Utah Department of Transportation. 

A 4.5-mile-long portion of the Northern Corridor would pass through the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve. Currently, the area is a protected public land.

Red Cliffs Desert Reserve and National Conservation Area established

The Red Cliffs Desert Reserve was established to protect the endangered desert tortoise and other native species, per Visit Utah. 

A January 2021 statement from the Center for Biological Diversity said local and federal stakeholders reached an agreement to establish the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve in 1996. If the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve became a protected wildlife reserve, development would be allowed on 300,000 acres outside of it. 

Per Conserve Southwest Utah, the agreement prohibited the building of new roads in the reserve. 

In 2009, a national public lands bill helped create the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area, which includes most of the desert reserve. The NCA allows for recreation on the land.

The building of highways, however, is prohibited in National Conservation Areas. 

Highway proposals

According to Conserve Southwest Utah, the highway was first proposed in 2006. Utah’s congressional delegation wanted it to run through the desert reserve. 

The delegation’s goal was to improve transportation for the growing area. 

According to the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, opponents successfully caused the cancellation of the bill. 

Fast forward to 2016, when the Bureau of Land Management completed a Resource Management Plan for the area. According to a Record of Decision published by the BLM in 2021, the bureau considered an alternative to Washington County’s proposal. 

Following the completion of the RMP, the BLM told Congress that the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 did not require them to approve Washington County’s request for a route through the Red Cliffs area. 

Furthermore, it said that the OPLMA prohibited the establishment of the Northern Corridor. 

Prior to the publication of the BLM document, the Utah Department of Transportation filed a Right of Way application. The application requests permission to use public land for certain projects.

Building projects on public lands, such as the Northern Corridor, must receive approval to be legally carried out. 

“The application seeks a ROW in the NCA that is larger than the current avoidance area can accommodate and, thus, cannot be fully considered without also amending the Red Cliffs NCA RMP,” read the 2021 document. 

Northern Corridor gets approval

At the very end of the Trump presidency, in 2021, the Northern Corridor Project received approval. 

Additionally, the Center for Biological Diversity said that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a take permit on the same day. A “take” permit allows permittees to purposely harm, harass or kill an endangered species. 

Per Cornell, the Fish and Wildlife Service determined that a take permit also applies to the habitat an animal lives in. 

Approval revoked

Deseret News reported that the approval was later revoked. In March 2024, the Fish and Wildlife Service withdrew an analysis that said an expansion of the desert reserve area would offset the consequences of the highway. 

Following the revocation, Washington County filed a lawsuit against the BLM and Fish and Wildlife Service. Court documents alleged that the organizations illegally revoked the Trump-era approval. 

The lawsuit is only the most recent legal challenge of the project.

Related: Washington County files lawsuit against federal agencies