FARMINGTON — As the sun begins to set, Nola and Charlie Nielsen listen as nearly a dozen grandchildren tear through their back yard.

Their daughter, Jody Jones, smiles.

"This is our getaway, it's our haven," she says.

But there is a note of seriousness in her voice. As the children play, the Nielsen clan is discussing a possible threat to their parents' home.

The day before a legislative-imposed moratorium on some redevelopment agency projects was supposed to be implemented, Farmington approved a blight survey that included the Nielsens' property.

Land owned by Sen. Greg Bell, R-Fruit Heights, and Farmington Councilman Larry Haugen was also included in the study — designed as a way to clean up a junk yard and secure protection of a city watershed.

In the final minutes of the 2005 session, lawmakers moved up the RDA deadline, and the blight study was put on hold. The Nielsens are concerned the legislation could be vetoed.

Their property also could be at risk when the moratorium ends next year.

"We are on an isolated island in the middle of public property," said Nola Nielsen. "I was never concerned before, but blight has a great-big, wide definition."

SB184 was designed to tighten that definition, said sponsoring Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo. The bill also eliminates the use of eminent domain to secure RDA projects.

For that, the Nielsens and 26 other families in the area are grateful.

But beyond concerns over a veto, they wonder why their land was deemed worthy of a blight study and about the impact that decision will have on property values.

They also question whether the study was done to benefit Bell and Haugen.

Bell, who sponsored ethics-reform legislation on the hill this year, owns 12 acres in the blight study area. Haugen owns a garage and junk yard in the area.

Residents allege the two worked a deal with the city that would benefit both financially.

The goal is for the two to do a land swap, said Tom Owen, owner of the historic Rock Mill in Farmington. Haugen would take Bell's property and clean up his business, and Bell would develop housing on Haugen's property.

"They will benefit immensely," said Owen, who has been active in Ogden-area RDA wars.

Bell says the city has been working to get rid of Haugen's garage for 25 years. The deal was "legitimate."

Said Haugen, "I have to have so much money to actually move. The city has been after us for 25 years, and the only way I can move out of there and help the waterway is either they RDA it or we put a multitude of houses there."

During debate on the RDA bill on Capitol Hill, Bell disclosed his conflict. But he did vote against an amendment that changed the moratorium from Feb. 24 to Feb. 15.