Of the 100 acres on the hill, North Salt Lake wants 20 for houses and 10 for a cemetery. The rest, it says, would remain developed open space with trails and a park. The city has already applied for funds through the state's LeRay McAllister Fund to help pay for preservation.

But developing even a portion of the 100 acres would ruin the entire area, Salt Lake officials have repeatedly said.

"To preserve our open spaces is a victory of long-term spiritual and quality-of-life values over short-term material greed," Anderson said.

Dave Buhler, who sits on the Salt Lake City Council, said Anderson's move toward eminent domain did not come with the consent of the City Council.

"If he has that power to act unilaterally without council support, I'm going to talk to my colleagues to see whether we should tighten up our ordinances so he has to consult us before he invokes eminent domain," Buhler said.

He wants to save the open space but is wary that the undetermined cost could balloon. "If it's $10 million or $6 million or $5 million or $3 million, where would that come from? The voters passed an open space bond for $5 million, but I don't think that it would be my intention that we would spend all of it here."

North Salt Lake residents point to luxury homes built in Salt Lake City's foothills as proof that Salt Lake City wants open space only when convenient.

"When they can gain by developing property in their own city, they allow it," said Wilford Cannon, who protested Anderson's use of eminent domain.

Were the property in question in Salt Lake City, there would have been little fuss over development, he insisted.

The Salt Lake City Council voted at the end of May to deny a disconnect request from North Salt Lake. Briggs said the obvious next step for North Salt Lake is court, although he's concerned whether his city of 10,000 can afford a lengthy litigation process against Salt Lake City.

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E-mail: kswinyard@desnews.com; nwarburton@desnews.com