The State is Letting Granite Construction Tear up Parleys Canyon to Construct a “Road to Nowhere”
Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment (UPHE), Save Our Canyons (SOC), Save Parley’s, and local residents are alarmed that on Monday, Aug. 25, motorists in Parley’s Canyon and residents of the Parley’s Mt. Aire community were seeing California-based Granite Construction’s heavy equipment tearing down trees and excavating into the hillside just two miles from the mouth of the canyon to begin constructing a frontage road off Exit 132.
Multiple state agencies approved this destruction along the lower part of the canyon just to build a property access road for Tree Farm LLC, whose principal is Jesse Lassley, despite the fact that neither he nor Granite Construction have the necessary conditional use permit from Salt Lake County to develop the gravel pit/limestone quarry that has sparked vigorous opposition from tens of thousands of residents of the Salt Lake Valley.
Granite Construction and Lassley are making a court challenge to the County’s land use authority that, as it stands, prohibits such a mine in that environmentally sensitive location. There is so much public, city, and county opposition to this mine that any final court decision is almost certain to come from the Utah Supreme Court. Therefore, a final decision in the case is unlikely before at least two years from now. If the courts rule against Granite and Lassley, this road is nothing less than a hideous, pointless, irreversible scar in the most beautiful part of the canyon wall.
“Granite Construction is tearing into one of Utah’s most iconic gateways without Salt Lake County’s approval for a gravel pit, without certainty and without accountability, this is a road to nowhere,” said Joel Wyner.
“The Division of Air Quality gets more complaints from the public about gravel pit pollution than any other source. Granite is already despised by most Salt Lake Valley residents for even proposing such a destructive, polluting project in our precious Wasatch Mountains and the eastern gateway to our capital city. But for them to start tearing up the canyon for a road that will likely serve no purpose is an arrogant dismissal of the common good of Utah residents, and an exploitation of the state’s incredibly weak environmental laws,” said Dr. Brian Moench, President of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment.”
“Without a conditional use permit from Salt Lake County, Granite is pointlessly tearing up this parcel of important wildlife habitat managed by UDOT and owned by taxpayers. It begs the question: why are they sinking costs into infrastructure for a gravel pit that won’t be permitted, what is next for the landscape?” said Jack Stauss, Executive Director, Save Our Canyons.
Environmental groups and local governments have been engaged in a heated battle for at least three years over Granite’s attempt to force this mine on the community. But there is still no legislation or state law that would strip the County of the right to prohibit such a mine in this critical mountain watershed.
The damage Granite and Lassley are doing to the aesthetic beauty and the watershed function of the canyon that is a critical water source for Salt Lake Valley residents is irreversible. It also serves absolutely no function whatsoever; It is a “road to nowhere” if they ultimately lose their court challenge, the most likely outcome.
Photo credit: Justin Wilde 082525
Photos and videos can be found here.
