(From the Apr/May Zephyr) Take it or Leave it: THE BOOK CLIFFS ZOMBIE HIGHWAY. A Bad Idea Rises From the Dead…by Jim Stiles

An excerpt:

In the very first Zephyr, I wrote a long article about a road building proposal that would be debated  for years. In late 1989, the lame duck Grand County Commissioners created a self-funded, autonomous special service road district, with the specific goal of building a multi-million dollar, modern, paved highway that would connect Grand County and Moab in the south with Uintah County and Vernal to the north. They called it the ‘Book Cliffs Highway.’ Its purpose was to provide better access for oil and gas development, but the highway was also pitched as a tourist road that would increase recreational traffic and shorten the travel distances.

Elsewhere in this issue you can read a narrative of the battle to stop the road. Opposition was light in the beginning, but by 1992, those of us who opposed the road began to gain some traction. Eventually, a change of government in Grand County and a negative environmental impact statement by the BLM killed the idea. We thought it was dead for good.

To read more of Jim’s article, click the image below:

http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2014/04/01/take-it-or-leave-it-the-book-cliffs-zombie-highway-a-bad-idea-rises-from-the-dead-by-jim-stiles/