Bluffdale Eyes Keeping Heavy Trucks Off Residential Roads

By Jennifer W. Sanchez, The Salt Lake Tribune

Jul. 8–Some Bluffdale officials don’t want big, heavy trucks driving through neighborhoods, so they’re proposing a truck-route ordinance to keep them out.

The Bluffdale City Council is scheduled to vote on the proposal at its meeting Tuesday.

The idea for the proposed ordinance was first presented to the council in late March. The proposal came from city staffers, who noticed dump trucks carrying gravel or large boulders driving on residential streets, said city attorney Stephen Homer

That worried officials concerned about public safety and the and damage on roads “not made for those large trucks,” Homer said.

The proposed ordinance would prohibit trucks with a gross weight of over 26,000 pounds from using residential streets. Government, military and public-utility trucks would be exempt from the ordinance.

Under the proposal, streets designated as “truck routes” are Redwood Road, 14600 South, Bangerter Highway, Heritagecrest Boulevard and Pony Express Road (also known as the I-15 frontage road).

If the ordinance is approved, it would be enforced by the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office. However, citation fines for violating the ordinance still need to be discussed, Homer said.

In other business Tuesday, the council also is expected to hear the public’s views — and vote- on amending an ordinance determining the number of units per acre and how much open space is required for multiphase developments.

For example, if a developer is building 200 houses in six phases, each phase must include a percentage of open space, said Vaughn Pickell, the city’s community-development director.

The Planning Commission wanted to change the ordinance because it might become a problem with the housing market downturn, Pickell said.

jsanchez@sltrib.com

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