They have had several meetings over the years, most of them you have to travel to the area to attend. It's been almost a year since I attended one, and don't know which of the proposed boundaries got approved yet.
As for the reasons they were looking to get national monument protection, they were primarily trying get around the requirements for public input, and the rules governing access and use of national forest and BLM land. From my understanding, the land will now be governed by National park service, but managed by the BLM and Forest service, more or less as subcontractors, with a board to be selected to govern so to speak. The lands currently owned and managed by the state of Utah will be confiscated, with ownership of "equal" amounts of land somewhere else turned over to the state in a land swap. As for how it all shakes out organization wise, they still haven't sorted all the details out regarding Grand Staircase, so expect it to take years. I try to attend as many land use meetings as I can, and could try and get the word out on when they are being held. It almost seems like they try and keep them secret.
From the meetings I did attend, the primary purpose of getting National monument designation was so that they could bypass current right of ways, and rules for public input, to restrict access much more so than they do now. By closing roads and trails it was hoped that people could be kept out of archeological sites, thus reducing vandalism and theft. The primary bad guys were made out to be ATV/4X4 users and sadly RV'ers. I confess to be one of the folks that spend a lot of time in this area doing both. Currently you hear the media talking about controlling mining/drilling which is somewhat misleading. Most of the land was already federal property albeit managed under somewhat different rules than they will now be. People tend to be more supportive though when you throw that into the mix.
We'll just have to see how things shake out for access. Southern Utah is an area I've loved since I was a little kid when we lived in that area for a couple years, and I developed my love of the outdoors as my dad took me out exploring virtually every weekend. With so many people visiting now, I really don't know what the answer is. From what I have seen though, the general consensus seems to be to do away with off pavement travel, to include RV's.
