WEST BOUNTIFUL -- Winding up some unfinished business, the West Bountiful City Council Tuesday approved four remaining resolutions relating to the creation of an RDA project area in that community.
The action followed a special Redevelopment Agency hearing held immediately before the council gathering.
Passage of the resolutions had been tabled from a prior meeting held back on Feb. 17. At that time the council decided to use the next couple of weeks to review information and public testimony from that hearing.
The only resolution approved Feb. 17 was the RDA Budget Plan -- 5 percent, or $23,250 ($348,000 total over 15 years), as a required administrative fund; $348,750 for property purchase, infrastructure and other items ($5.23 million total); and $93,000, ($1.4 million) or 20 percent of the annual total, for affordable housing.
The four resolutions considered Tuesday night dealt with the following:
- Making modifications to the draft redevelopment plan for the West Bountiful Commons Redevelopment Project Area,
- Passing upon and overruling objections to the draft redevelopment plan except insofar as such objections are the basis for modifications of the plan,
- Determining the level of opposition to the draft redevelopment plan and, finally
- Approving and adopting the draft West Bountiful Commons Redevelop-ment Project Area Plan as the "Official Plan" for the West Bountiful Commons Redevelopment Project Area.
Randy Sant, West Bountiful's RDA consultant, was on hand Tuesday to discuss the analysis of the information and input gathered at the last meeting. He then offered his recommendations.
Those recommendations included the retention of the power of eminent domain. Further, the only properties removed from the project area were the Walton Brake and Tire location, 532 W. 400 North; the Chevron Service Station on the corner of 400 N. and 500 West; and Carr Printing, 580 W. 100 North.
"The only other modification we made to the plan," said Sant, "was to include a section listing on which pages certain statutory requirements were located on and an explanation of the law on those requirements."
During the public hearing, an attorney for one of the property owners filed an objection to the plan, stating that certain statutory elements were not included. Sant and RDA attorney Craig Smith disagreed. They felt the information was there, but the hard numbers the attorney had been looking for were simply not available yet.
The next step, Sant reported, will be preserving property owners rights concerning future development in the project area. Each property owner, and area tenant, will receive a letter asking them to spell out any development plans they might have in the area. That information needs to be returned to the redevelopment agency within 30 days of receiving the letter.
"We have to give those property owners the first right of development," said Sant. "We plan to begin sending out those letters next week."
If no area property owners respond, the agency would be free to put out an RFP, request for proposals, for outside developers. But, Sant believes, a local property owner will be coming forward with a plan.