The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with Salt Lake City Weekly.
The Utah Department of Transportation’s decision to buy the property of a former top lawmaker in May for $8 million raised more than eyebrows.
Some residents and elected officials raised their voices against the sticker shock of buying the property that could eventually be the base station for the controversial Little Cottonwood Canyon gondola project. Cottonwood Heights Mayor Gay Lynn Bennion challenged that the property was worth about half the purchase amount…