SB195 Update—Substitute 7 improves amendment that reneged on important changes

Update 9 AM Thursday March 6 - The conference committee met and passed a motion to proceed with a new substitute, Substitute 7. This new version should be more like the Substitute 5 version. They removed the inclusion of all streets and included an expedited review process for streets that are not yet awarded for construction and that were intended to be built before the mobility plan is in place. We expect this version to pass and thank you to everyone for pushing for better versions of this bill!

Update 8 AM Thursday March 6 - The Senate rejected the amendment (described below) then the House refused to recede to the previous version of the bill. The House and Senate will now negotiate a compromise on the bill in a conference committee, where 3 members of each chamber will work to settle their differences. The conference committee will meet today at 830 AM. The results of this committee will then head back to the House and the Senate for concurrence votes before the bill is finally passed. Keep on contacting members of the House and the Senate to support SLC’s control of its streets and its residents’ safety!

Late on Tuesday night, the Utah House amended SB195 and reneged on the compromises made after hearing from our community of supporters and after negotiations with Salt Lake City. In short, the bill is currently in its worst form yet, and everything the House Committee told us, to our faces, about appreciating our feedback and working toward a workable consensus was a lie.

The changes include:

• Extending the period this bill takes effect, now through July 1, 2029

• Broadening the streets impact, now including all streets in SLC again

• Adding more restrictive language on traffic calming, any strategy which ‘may increase congestion OR impede traffic flow’

• Pausing projects that have not yet been ‘awarded’ before February 25, 2025, meaning this will likely pause the 300 W and 400 S bikeway projects
  

There is one last chance to stop this bill. Because of the amendments on the House floor, the Senate must cast a final "concurrence" vote on SB195 before it passes the Legislature outright. This vote could occur at any moment. If you are reading this article, please join us in contacting members of the Utah Senate, as soon as possible. Ask them to oppose the concurrence vote and to only support a true compromise version of SB195.

Senators' contact information can be found at le.utah.gov, under the "legislators" tab on the home page. Their emails and phone numbers are listed there. The Sweet Streets website also has prior posts with additional contact information. We also need to contact our mayor, City Council, neighborhood community councils, regional partner organizations, school board members and any community stakeholder who can add volume and demand that our rights to self-governance be preserved.