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Show Ghe Salt LakeTribune . @ STATE OF THE STATE, D-2 TOM WHARTON @ FORTHE RECORD, D-2 @ DILBERT, D-3 BIRTHS, D4 =M OBITUARIES, D4 MH CLASSIFIEDS, D5 APRIL 22, 2000 Toothless Law Lets Housing Slip Away Developers raze low-cost dwellings, thenfail to replace the units with comparable structures © 2000,The Sait Lake Tribune ‘Rural Change Like Rolling Boulder Uphill BOULDER — Wal-Mart is Mark Austin's enemy. So are motel chains and franchise BYREBECCA WALSH thousand couldn't even begin to build another home.” THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Salt Lake City’s housing-mitigation ordinance is a Shocked by the disappointing results of the housing. replacement rules, City Council members have asked housing and planning staff to give the measure some ust Five years ago, city leaders adopted the law in an attempt to replace apartments and homes razed to make wayfor businesses. But the well-intentioned policyhasn't teeth. For decades, Salt Lake Citylost residents to the sub urbs. Whole neighborhoods disappeared under shopping centers and freeways. The capital city only started gain. worked. The latest example: Moyle Petroleum will tear down three homes to build a “Common Cents” convenience store andgas station on the northwest cornerof 700 North and Redwood Road. To make up for the loss of those homes —. only one is occupied the city will bill the South Dakota company $40,000. “It's pitiful,” Councilman ‘Tom Rogan says. “Forty ing residents in the early 1990s with new neighborhoods west of Redwood Road, apartment complexes downtown and homes on vacantlots. Salt Lake City is a hub of affordable housing in Salt Lake County. Thecity’s housing market is almost evenly split between multi-family condos and apartments and owner-occupied homes, unlike surrounding cities domi natedby single-family homes. So, with finite space to grow and vulnerable popula: tions at risk, preserving every house and apartment in the city has becomecritical. “We have an obligation to protect housing stock,” Councilman Keith Christensen says. City planners drafted the mitigation requirements in 1995 after Hermes demolished a block of homes and busi: nesses between 400 South and 500 South to makewayfor a Fred Meyer superstore, Barnes & Noble and Old Navy. In theory, property owners whotear down residences to put up commercial structures have to build new housing in the sameareaor deposit an equal amount of cash in the city’s Housing Trust Fund. But the law has noticeablegaps. It kicks in only when a developer asks to change a lot from residential to See ORDINANCE,Page D-4 restaurants. “Kmart and Wal-Mart represent the destruction and devastation of rural America,”he says. Intense andred-faced, he obviously spendsa lot of time outdoors. this day,hesits in front ofa cracklingfire in the commonarea of the Boulder Mountain Lodge. Austin built this 20-room motel and restaurant complex in 1994 using logs from nearby Boulder Mountain.It sits close to the junction of Utah Highway12 and the BurrTrail , in oneofthestate’s most remote Child Advocates Put LAIR OF THE BEAR Focus on Solutions New campaign targets lawmakers, voters to come up with practical answers to problems towns. BYJUDY FAHYS Heand his German-born wife Katie, who becamea U.S.citizen last ‘THE SALT LAKETRIBUNE year, represent It’s a cliché in Utah, where, to see candidates kissing babies andtohear the electe the new population ofcitizens buying property andbringingdifferent perspectives to southern Utah. Thetransition has notbeen easy. Austin’s unsuccessful battle with * town leaders over a liquor permit for the lodge’s restaurantpits the needs of a newcomeragainstthe desires of longtimeresidents. Helikes that Boulder’s few businesses are mom and popoperations. Nofranchises here yet. But he wor_ Ties that many Garfield Countyresidents maybe too willing to turn against otheraspects of their pio.Yneerhistory. i* “Muchofthe heritage was about ‘| adapting,” hesays,blue eyes flashing. “They dealt with changesin the weather, economy and the land, and learned to feed cowson rocksin the |) desert.” fl While Mormonpioneer leader , Brigham Youngwas a masterplan, ner,he says, people in rural Utah of_ ten fight planning,seeingit as an in¢ trusion onprivate property rights. Thatlack of appreciation for their poundon “our children’s future.” But toorarely do the day-to-day needs ofchildren get the attention they deserve, according to a newly organized group of children’s- issues advocates. That’s the impetus behind their Utah Campaign for Children, aneffort to get voters and decision-makerstofocus more onpractical problemsfacing Utah ;» ‘/ ) t) + +\ 1} *} {+ +} ‘!_ {+ ‘| } }) } +! ++ :) +} {+ do not think about the long-term consequences oftheir actions. For example, he wonders why they paved the Burr Trail. “The Burr Trail encouraged more outsiders to comeinto the area,” says Austin. “Theobject of the Burr Trail was to get easier access to grazing allotments.It wasnot intended to be access for hordes oftourists. Theironyis that pavingit brings in more tourists who are not crazy about seeing skinnycowsin the '\ “Advocating is educating and knowing you can makea differ- ence,” said Chris Chytraus,a lobbyist for Utah Children andcoordinator for the new campaign. Utah organizers include high- profile figures in business,politics and child welfare. The advisory board includes lobbyist Doug Foxley, a co-chairman, business guru Thayne Robson, legislator Dave Jones andthe political-campaign powercouple of Caroline Roemer + foot.” ') The completionofthe lodge marked the end ofa personal journeyfor the Seattle native who has spent mostof thelast 26 years in southern Utah, except for mountain Climbing trips to Africa, South ‘America and Europe. 4 As acontractor, Austin built mo- +} tels in Springdale in the 1980s. He \) moved to Torrey et the edge of Capi') tol Reef National Park, savinga his+} toric church and moving it to land +} he owns there. Austin considered ‘) building there, but the coming of chain hotels andfast-food joints did | not fit with his vision. ersrrrseper pesprerrsrees 7 Austin bought the lodge property in 1993 from long-time resident ‘ Howard Church. Hespentfall and winter drawing upplansin the rented old Boulder Mercantile and started construction in 1994. The lodge opened eight months later. The quietfeel of the property, which includes a bird-filled wetJands,contrasts with the larger moels in nearby Torrey and Bryce Canyon. ‘The Austins’ odyssey has not ‘been an easyonein the midst of Boulder’s splendidisolation. They think differently. And that can be a , problem in a place where change comes slowly. ee my i} for pushingchildren’s issuesto the forefront by educating voters and candidates. The Florida campaign has been under way for more than five years. Director Roy Miller said he got the idea after workingonpolitical campaigns and in TSRi) child-welfare | WebLinks @ Past Stories organizations. “What we are finding out about Florida voters is that they care passionately about children’s issues,” said Miller. “They just don't feel they have access to the [political] process.” Over the years, he has learned thatit’s importantto lisiten closely to the public. The «campaign's yearly agenda is developed from opinion surveys, focus groups and See ADVOCATES,Page D-3 Utah’s Inmate Telemarketers MayBeDialing Up Young Girls BY GREG © 2000, BURTON LT LAKETRIBUNE Utah State Prison inmates who work astelemarketers for a private company may have gathered information from younggirls over the telephone in Texas and Utah and then sold the information to other inmates, a mother from Texasclaims. Hefrets that community leaders {} desert. They shot themselves in the Children’s Campaign as a model kids andtheir families. ‘heritage includes paving the Burr Trail and proposals to widen and pave theHole in the Rockroad in the Escalante-GrandStaircase National Monument. “Ifyou were to drive the Holein the Rockroadas a paved trail, you are missing the pioneer experience,” he says. “The road shouldbe left the wayit was to allow peopleto experience it the way the pioneersdid.” and Carter Livingston. They are looking at the Florida Investigators for each state’s attorney general have fielded complaints about inmate telemar- keters and turned them over to Utah prison officials, who launched a probe in February. April Jordan of Texas told The Salt Lake Tribune that an inmate called her homein February while Al Hartmann/The Salt Lake Tribune Workers dangle on ropesfrom the top of the Delta Center on Friday moming, washing windows and assembling individual pieces into a giant portrait of the Jazz Bear mascot. It is the scene of the Utah Jazz’s opening game of the NBAplayoffs this aftemoon, when the team wiill play host to the Seattle Sonics. For complete previews of the playoffs, see B-1. supposedly workingias a telemarketer for a private company. “Whenhecalled he got through to my daughter,” Jorclan said. “He asked heragetwice,and then gave the informationto other inmates.” Jordan said the inmate asked her daughter for other personal infor- mation that did not seem appropriate for a telemarketingcall, but she did notelaborate. Corrections spokesman Jesse Gallegos said he was unaware of the specifics of the investigation. Inmate telemarketers in Utah are employed by Utah Correc- tional Industries (UCI), a quasipublic and lucrative arm of the Sce INMATES,Page D-4 CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS Richard Kovacevich, chief executive of Wells Fargo é&C Thursday while visiting Salt Lake City that Wells Fargo’s aoquisitit First Security Corp. likely will result in the sale of only a few Utah branches.A headline in Friday’s Business section indicated otherwise. Scenic Canal Trail Traces Efforts Of Rugged Utah PioneerSettlers BY JUDY FAHYS THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Scarcity of money and hope plagued the southern Utah pioneers whobuilt the Hurricane Canal. But 107 years later,neither has hindéred the people turning the old water channel into a scenic hiking traiil. Infact, volunteers have nearlyfinished preparing the 7-mile footpath forvisitors. They will be done after erecting 15 descriptive markers along the route where city forefathers chipped the canal into the side of the Virgin River Canyonto bring waterinto the desert town ofHurricane. “It’s incredible what these men did,” said Laura Thomas,a leader of the trail in Hurricane. “We are going to be able to preserve it now.” ‘Thomas, a home health-care nurse, has coordinated volunteers cleaning out the dried up waterditch, constructing access to it and clearing walkable pathways along it. An informal group of history buffs, civic activists and otherresidents of the southwestern Utah community began raising moneylast year. They scraped together$5,500 from thesale of personalized commemorative bricks, handmade by John Gubler. The $100-apiece bricks are for thetrailheadpark,located at 200 N. 300 it. ‘That money has been supplemented by a $38,700 grantfrom thestate Parks office, $2,500 from the Utah Humanities Council and $5,000 from historic preservation funds secured by thecity. Volunteers have transformed the idea See TRAIL, Page D-3 & Nick Adams/The Associated Press Lesley Thacker, an Americorps worker, uses a pick to dig stone steps on ‘trail down the side of a canyon above the Virgin River near Hurricane in Washington County. |