From Deseret News archives:
Salt Lake Council is preparing to seize properties in rail-line realignment
Landowners seeking more negotiation, money for relocation
The council, by unanimous vote Thursday, started the eminent-domain process on eight properties in the area around 800 West and South Temple to make way for the Grant Tower rail-line realignment.
"We're just not being offered enough money to make our move," Jason Broschinsky, who owns a metal-finishing shop at 777 W. South Temple, told the council before Thursday's vote. "The first appraisal that came in was just a joke."
Eminent-domain laws allow governments to seize land to make way for public projects when land-purchase agreements can't be worked out. An eminent-domain condemnation requires the government to pay a fair market price, based on appraisals, and to help finance a relocation.
D.J. Baxter, an adviser to Mayor Rocky Anderson, said the city has already negotiated purchase agreements with several landowners in the area, and he holds out hope that deals can be worked out with the remaining property owners. If a deal is worked out, the eminent-domain proceedings can stop.
That has left residents near 900 South dealing with fast, noisy trains in their once-quiet neighborhoods.
The Grant Tower realignment would straighten the turns and allow Union Pacific to stop using the 900 South line. The city plans to build a so-called linear park along the abandoned 900 South track's right-of-way.
The Grant Tower project will also make way for the underground City Creek to see daylight again, part of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce's Downtown Rising plan.
Without the disputed land, the Grant Tower project could not happen, Baxter said.
"We look forward to the day the abandoned rail line will become a linear park," Poplar Grove Community Council chairman Mike Harman told the council, urging it to do "whatever it takes" to move forward on the Grant Tower project. The properties facing condemnation are in the Poplar Grove neighborhood.
Landowners at Thursday's council meeting were not solidly against the project. Most said they simply want more money to make a relocation more feasible.
Comments
- Spurs drop slumping 76ers 8:05 p.m.
- Brooks, Landry power Rockets 7:55 p.m.
- Woods gives his side of the story 7:53 p.m.
- Senators want charges for crashers 7:38 p.m.
- Texas A&M gets unexpected lift 7:36 p.m.
- Wallace leads Pistons past Hawks 7:28 p.m.
- Suns beat Raptors 113-94 7:26 p.m.
- Boy Scouts seek new recruits 7:18 p.m.
- Celtics top Heat 92-85 7:15 p.m.
- Recent prosecutions for Demjanjuk 7:10 p.m.
- Hall mouths off about hate of Utah
- BYU is champion of the state
- Cougars beat Utes in overtime
- Credit Coug defense for win
- Field goals, penalties doomed Utes
- Cougar defense rose to occasion
- Marriage definitions vary widely
- Banged up Jazz get best of Blazers
- Jones' joy for life remembered
- Fantasy is reality for BYU professor
- Hall mouths off about hate of Utah
797 - Cougars beat Utes in overtime
468 - Thunder rolls by Jazz
136 - BYU is champion of the state
130 - Man trapped in Nutty Putty cave dies
117 - Cave to be sealed with body inside
116 - Editorial: Poor welcome for Palin
113 - Rivalry Week is highly profane
90 - Hall's legacy measured today
79 - Y. focused on 10-win season
74
I wanted to tell them not to go. I dropped subtle hints. "My money is on...
When I was a kid, I worshipped my grandpa. He was undoubtedly my hero....
If Jordan Bluth is in this year's production, then it is a must-see...
...will always have a great memory. What will you have?
Utah had double the penalties as BYU, and most of those personal fouls. I...
the BYU athletic program is a shining beacon to the world. I've been told...
Let's just all let the water roll off our backs and then move on to...
When I decided to attend university to read Theology and Religious Studies,...
There definetly is a chapel in center city philadelphia. I was there when it...
Oops - too late
That BYU fans and players should now be rooting for a Utah bowl win so that...
Hall just said what Utah fans think and want to say about BYU. The only...



You can be the first to comment on this story.