At the May 28, 2026 WFRC meeting, FoLCC's Emily Pitsch delivered a public comment asking if the Wasatch Front Regional Council (WFRC) was really required to include the gondola in the Regional Transportation Plan — or was that decision based on a faulty legal opinion.Below is Emily's full public comment, followed by key points and questions we asked WFRC.
Watch Emily's full comment above (starts automatically at 16:46), or watch it directly on YouTube.
Key points from Emily's comment:
- Back in 2023, WFRC included the gondola in the RTP because a legal memo told them they had to. That memo came from the law firm Stoel Rives.
- The memo never mentioned a federal rule that cuts the other way. Appendix A of 23 CFR 450 states that, for 40 years, federal policy has intended transportation plans like the RTP to shape environmental reviews, not the reverse.
- It also left out FHWA guidance showing the order of operations matters. Before UDOT can sign a Record of Decision (ROD) on the gondola, that decision has to be consistent with the RTP already in place; meaning WFRC's own plan carries real weight over what UDOT can ultimately decide.
- A 2008 case in Missoula County, Montana shows this isn't theoretical. Local planners there excluded the "preferred alternative" identified in a federal environmental study from their own transportation plan, which forced the federal Record of Decision to select "no action" instead.
- The bottom line: WFRC may have had the authority to keep the gondola out of the RTP all along. FoLCC is asking the Council to get a second, independent legal opinion from counsel with no ties to a pro-gondola entity, to find out for sure.
As of publishing, WFRC has not issued a public response to Emily's comment. That silence is exactly why this matters: if the legal basis for putting the gondola in the RTP was incomplete, the Council needs to hear that loudly and repeatedly until they act on it.
What you can do
Share this post with your network on Facebook, Instagram, or by email, and follow Friends of Little Cottonwood Canyon for updates as we keep pressing WFRC for a real answer.
