Posted on 02/22/2005 9:42:22 PM PST by The Chosen One
OGDEN - The city Redevelopment Agency took the first steps Tuesday toward condemning three properties in a downtown neighborhood to make way for a Super Wal-Mart. The Ogden City Council, acting as the agency board, voted 5-2 to negotiate or, if necessary, exercise its right of eminent domain to condemn two homes and a vacant lot. The owners of one home and the lot have died and heirs could not come to agreement on selling the properties to the city, said City Attorney Norm Ashton. The owners of the second home have moved out of state and have not been found, he said. The city last spring declared as blighted the neighborhood on Wall Avenue, north of Union Station and the new transit center. It has persuaded many of the owners of the eight businesses and 33 homes to sell their property, but several say they do not want to uproot their lives and, so far, refuse to sell. Wal-Mart has agreed to build a superstore if the city can assemble the 21-acre parcel and demolish the old buildings. The process is going slower than Wal-Mart or the city would like, Economic Development Director Stuart Reid acknowledged in an Redevelopment Agency work session after the meeting. However, it's still within the schedule, he said. In other business, Reid told the RDA the city hopes within a few weeks to line up a new developer to replace Proterra, which has defaulted on its bank loan for the Union Square town houses on 25th Street. The city loaned $675,000 in future property tax revenue to the project, which it is assured of getting back under any future owner, Reid said. The $1 million federal housing loan from the city is lost, however, if the city cannot find another developer to take over the project before the bank forecloses, said Scott Brown, who works with Reid.
Don't think this is going to fly.
Why should I concern myself with the right of Walmart, Home Depot, etc. to develope their property when they are opposed by community activists, then these same big box companies use the government to steal others' private homes and businesses?
Thats garbage, let Wal-Mart PAY for the land.
This SUCKS! And in Utah, of all places.
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