Settlement Preserves Majority of Disputed Acreage on SLC Boundary

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) Salt Lake City and its neighbor to the North have reached a settlement in a lawsuit over 80 acres of open space North Salt Lake hoped to develop. The deal preserves a major portion of the land bordering the two cities as a "geo-antiquity," while still allowing 13 acres for development:

"Obviously it would have been nice to preserve the entire 80 acres, but we feel we've achieved most of what we were trying to do in terms of preserving the Bonneville Shoreline," says Salt Lake City attorney Ed Rutan. "We're certainly happy we were able to resolve this dispute amicably."

The "amicable" settlement is significant given more than two years of conflict over the land - including sign-waving protests, political name-calling and litigation. Salt Lake City and County are pooling resources from their general and open space funds to pay three and a half million dollars for 60 acres of the land that belonged to North Salt Lake City, but was within Salt Lake City's boundaries.

"North Salt Lake acquired it 50 or 60 years ago from a private water company," explains Rutan. "NSL condemned the property from the water company. Part of the property was in NSL and part of it in SL on our side of the boundary."

State law requires the portion in Salt Lake City boundaries to follow that city's zoning laws - which Mayor Rocky Anderson hoped to restrict to open space. Through the settlement, North Salt Lake can develop thirteen of the acres and will hold the conservation easement on sixty. The remaining seven acres along the steepest part of the shoreline bench will be also be preserved as open space. North Salt Lake City officials were unavailable for comment.

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