Utah Republicans love to preach “local control”—until a culture-war priority needs the state to step in. HB196 is the latest test: a bill that lets the Legislature rename city streets over local objections, crafted for one specific target in Salt Lake City.
Layton Republican Rep. Trevor Lee is following through on his threat to rename 900 South—Harvey Milk Boulevard—in Salt Lake City after conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk. To pull it off, he’s inventing a brand-new process that rewrites state law and lets the Legislature usurp long‑standing local authority.
⏰ Tick Tock
8 days - Start of the 2026 Utah Legislature (1/20/2026)
33 days - Signature deadline for ballot initiative seeking to repeal Prop. 4 (2/14/2026)
56 days - First day congressional candidates can file to run for the 2026 election. (3/9/2026)
64 days - Neighborhood caucus night. (3/17/2026)
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162 days - Utah's 2026 primary election (6/23/2026)
295 days - 2026 midterm elections (11/3/2026)
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Right now, Utah cities have total control over their own street names. Lee’s HB196 creates an exemption so the Legislature can override that and rename city streets—even if the city says no.
In 2016, the Salt Lake City Council unanimously voted to rename 20 blocks of 900 South for Harvey Milk, the slain civil rights activist and the first openly gay elected official in California.
Last June, after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the U.S. Navy to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, Lee posted on social media that he would run 2026 legislation to rename Harvey Milk Blvd. as “Charlie Kirk Boulevard.”
"To go in line with this change at the federal level. I am going to propose simple easy legislation to change the name of Harvey Milk BLvD [sic] in Salt Lake City," Lee wrote. He also claimed, "Utahn’s [sic] don’t want streets named after pedophiles,” a false allegation based on a relationship Milk had with a 17-year-old when 17 was the age of consent in New York.
The US Navy has decided to change the name of the USNH Harvey Milk
To go in line with this change at the federal level. I am going to propose simple easy legislation to change the name of Harvey Milk BLvD in Salt Lake City.
Utahn’s don’t want streets named after pedophiles. pic.twitter.com/AxBgqtcsyF— Trevor Lee (@VoteTrevorLee) June 13, 2025
Lee argued Kirk has “a far greater connection to Utah than Milk” after he was shot and killed on the campus of Utah Valley University in September. If HB196 passes, Salt Lake City would have to drop Milk’s name in favor of Kirk’s. The city wouldn’t get to keep the old name or choose something else.
For the record: Lee’s home in Layton is nearly 30 miles from where Harvey Milk Boulevard begins in Salt Lake City. Currently he must drive more than 30 minutes down I-15 before he’d see the first Harvey Milk Boulevard sign.
This isn’t Lee’s first attempt to use state power to carry out a political vendetta against Salt Lake City. He admitted his 2025 bill banning the display of pride flags in public schools and buildings was aimed at the capital.
“I think we have the votes in the Senate to make sure during Pride Month in Salt Lake City that you’re not able to fly Pride flags all over the place, which is something people are sick and tired of,” Lee told a far-right group in March. That crackdown is believed to be one reason Sundance Film Festival leaders moved the event out of Utah.
It’s a pattern. When Salt Lake and Summit Counties implemented 30-day mask requirements during a COVID surge, the Republican majority in the Legislature swept in to override them. Roughly 80% of the votes to kill the order came from lawmakers outside those counties—exactly the opposite of “local control.”