The Utah Department of Transportation bought roughly two-thirds of an acre in easements from the university in January to expand Geneva Road. The land consisted of small strips nestled in between the UVU West building and Geneva Road and will be used to build a new sidewalk.
The school made $167,000 from the sale, part of which will help to purchase and maintain other campus facilities.
“Some of the money will be used to re-landscape the temporary easements after UDOT is finished with construction,” said Jim Michaelis, associate vice president of Facilities and Planning.
The rest of the money from the sale became part of the university’s general fund.
In other major plans for that part of campus, three acres of land were sold to the Utah Transit Authority for $1.2 million in July 2009. The land is south of the National Guard building and the UVU West parking lot.
UTA is currently using the land to construct a road connecting Geneva road with its rail line known as Frontrunner.
“Frontrunner will give better access to campus for students,” Michaelis said.
UTA buses will routinely travel to and from Frontrunner to campus.
UTA and UDOT will also be funding improvements to the UVU West and National Guard building parking lot.
“The current road leading into the MATC parking lot will be turned into more parking stalls,” Michaelis said.
The entrance into the MATC will be served by the new UTA road.
UTA also plans to build a detention pond to counter any flooding problems near the parking lot. According to Michaelis, the retention pond will collect rainfall instead of allowing it to flood the road. Construction for the UTA road project and retention pond will be finished by 2013.
The UVU West building itself will be renovated starting in May when the current MATC programs move out. New Nursing labs and the community health program will join the dental hygienist program in filling the vacancy. The UVU West building will then be renamed as the Health Professions building.
