SALT LAKE COUNTY, Utah — A project intended to make Emigration Canyon Road safer is creating a different worry for people who live beside it: Could the wider road reach into the properties they rely on?
The proposed project covers approximately 1.8 miles of Emigration Canyon Road. Federal-aid documents describe widening the pavement by two to six feet in some places, adding bike lanes and improving drainage, slopes and guardrails.
The plans are not final. The project is still in its first phase, which includes an environmental study and preliminary engineering concepts.
That uncertainty is at the heart of homeowners’ concerns.
Justin Kahn owns a cabin along the project route. A survey he commissioned places his driveway, parking area, usable yard, septic tank, leach field and shed within the public right-of-way.
A right-of-way is the area along a road that the government says it has the right to use for transportation purposes. In Emigration Canyon, that area overlaps portions of some residential properties.
Kahn’s greatest concern is his septic system. The Salt Lake County Health Department said it does not have a record confirming the system’s exact location, but a home must have a legal and functioning wastewater-disposal system to be habitable.
No one has told Kahn that the road project will damage his septic system. No one has been able to assure him that it will not.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with this property,” Kahn said.
Kahn bought the cabin in July 2024 with plans to turn it into his permanent home. The interior is now gutted, but he is afraid to invest more money until he knows whether the project could affect the property.
He estimates approximately 70 homes could be affected along the nearly two-mile route.
Jessica Steed is among the residents waiting for answers. She has lived in Emigration Canyon for 12 years and is raising four children in a home between the road and a creek.
Steed worries a future design could affect her garage or eliminate roadside parking her family uses. She has not received a property-specific notice saying that will happen.
“You lose sleep and you worry,” Steed said. “It’s always in the back of your mind wondering what might happen.”
The Greater Salt Lake Municipal Services District is overseeing the study. Communications manager Maridene Alexander said no final design exists and that possible effects on septic systems, driveways and structures are among the issues the study is intended to examine.
Alexander said the project’s primary goal is improving safety while protecting the character and charm of the canyon.
The district said it has communicated with residents through an open house, city council presentations, mailed notices, newsletters and individual meetings. Homeowners interviewed by FOX 13 said they are still waiting for information about what could happen at their specific addresses.
“We don’t have anything to release right now because we’re just kind of in the waiting stage,” Alexander said.
The federal-aid agreement lists a maximum project value of approximately $6.5 million. The district said that full amount has not been received and that about $500,000 has been committed to the current study.
Results are expected during the coming winter. Officials will then decide whether to move the project into final design. If it advances, construction could begin in 2028.
Until those answers arrive, Kahn’s cabin remains stripped to the studs, and his plans for the property remain on hold.
