Rexburg citizens turn out in force to oppose East Parkway Corridor

REXBURG — A controversial roadway planned for eventual implementation east of Rexburg was argued to a stand-still at the Rexburg City Council meeting Wednesday night. Residents seized the opportunity to voice their concerns and air their frustrations regarding the city’s Master Transportation Plan — specifically, the East Parkway Corridor.

It was standing room only in the Rexburg City Council chambers. It was the latest of work meetings leading up to the approval of the transportation plan that is once again coming up for renewal. The council seemed unsurprised to see the large crowd in attendance as Mayor Jerry Merrill welcomed everyone who had come to share their viewpoint.

Some history on the issue

The East Parkway Corridor was designed to take traffic away from Second East, the main north-south traffic artery through Rexburg. Anticipating growth in the Sugar City area, experts and city officials felt a larger road going around Rexburg to the east and joining up with Seventh South, then up to Sugar City, would be a logical step.

The original proposed path for the corridor was adopted in November 2012. In April, the City Council voted to revisit and realign that path. Opposition has continued throughout the years and through several redesigns; the latest version is no exception.

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No one in attendance Wednesday evening spoke in favor of the project as it stands. From “flawed” to “catastrophic,” residents had nothing good to say about the planned route for the corridor. Many of the folks who are opposed are residents in the neighborhoods the corridor is meant to neighbor or run through, an area referred to as the Sunrise Neighborhood.

The future East Parkway Corridor is marked in yellow. The Sunrise neighborhood is circled in red. | City of Rexburg

McKinley Molina, who lives on Crestview Drive, near the projected path of the corridor, compared the council’s lack of transparency to the leadership in her hometown of Lahaina, Maui. She said the lack of leadership and accountability would lead to situations similar to those that caused confusion and chaos during the wildfires.

McKinley Molina compared the corridor plan to the fires in Maui. | Mary Boyle, EastIdahoNews.com

“If we don’t have strong leadership on this plan … there’s going to continue to be major breakdown. We can say, ‘Oh it’s going to be 24 years. It’s a really long plan,’ but I don’t think any of you will be sitting in these chairs in 40 years.

“Right now, I am not seeing the leadership I would want in my town,” she said, noting how the council members referred to City Engineer Keith Davidson for answers to the questions residents were raising. “I’m really, deeply concerned.”

Councilwoman Tisha Flora defended the council’s reliance on Davidson.

“We are all regular people, just like you. There is no way I can know everything that Keith knows,” she said. “And there is no way I can know what each professional person does in this city. … We are doing the best we can. Leadership is also turning to the professionals, saying, ‘I don’t know everything, and I’d like to know if what I’m saying is correct.’ That is leadership.”

Merrill diffused the situation, which had begun to feel a little tense, saying this was why the city employed experts and professionals, and they would continue to rely on them.

The council, for its part, seemed open to the comments and criticism and thanked folks who spoke as they sat down. Davidson, who had a hand in designing the corridor, took some of the heat, answering many questions about the project’s timetable and clarifying terms used in the city’s plan.

Keith Davidson responds to a speaker at the Rexburg City Council meeting Wednesday evening. | Mary Boyle, EastIdahoNews.com

As in past meetings, Merrill and the council reassured those in attendance that the project was at least a decade out and would only begin when population and traffic demands dictated it.

“We’re not going to build a road just to build a road,” Merrill told the audience.

Some council members seemed puzzled about why residents were upset. After all, University Boulevard has been meant to connect to Sunrise since the late 1970s, Council President Jordan Busby said.

“This isn’t something new,” he said. “This is something that’s been on the plan since 1979.”

The corridor was officially included in the transportation plan in 2003 and will most likely not be put into action for another 10 (and possibly 30 or even 40) years, council members added.

However, the attendees weren’t having it. They reinforced Molina’s point of view. They had been living there for decades, they said. No one who made the plan in 2003 was currently on the council, and those who would approve the plan this year would likely not be on the council decades down the road.

“Just because it’s been on the plan for a long time doesn’t make it right,” Serena Kugath said. She reminded the mayor and council she had raised opposition to the plan in 2009 and every time it has come up for approval since.

“Were any of you sitting there in 2009?” she demanded of the council. No one could answer in the affirmative. “You’re making the decision and going to move on, but we’re still going to live there.”

With the meeting reaching the two-hour mark, Merrill said he acknowledged that it was obvious the residents weren’t happy with the plan and suggested tabling the approval until more research could be done and more options presented for the public’s feedback.

Lee Barney, who called the plan flawed, said tabling the decision wasn’t the end of the neighborhood’s battle. It would only end when the East Parkway Corridor didn’t go through the Sunrise neighborhood.

To view the meeting in its entirety, visit the city of Rexburg’s website .