Bill to allow N. Salt Lake to annex 80 acres held in the Senate

The city of North Salt Lake may not get an easy ending to its fight over foothill open space with Salt Lake City.

A bill that would have allowed North Salt Lake to annex 80 acres of foothill land that it owns within Salt Lake City's boundaries was held in the Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee on Wednesday.

It may not have enough votes to make it out of the committee.

Sen. Dan Eastman, R-Bountiful, who is sponsoring SB130, said Wednesday that the intent of his bill was to assist North Salt Lake in its fight with Salt Lake City. Last year, the two cities sued each other over the 80 acres.

Salt Lake City wants the land to be kept as open space. Its lawsuit seeks to condemn a portion of the land so it couldn't be developed. North Salt Lake wants to develop a portion of the land. Its lawsuit seeks to disconnect the land from Salt Lake City's boundaries.

A trial date for the North Salt Lake lawsuit has been set for mid-February.

"This is obviously a single-issue piece of legislation," Eastman said during debate about the bill. "The cooperation from Salt Lake City to North Salt Lake has been just ridiculous. I agreed to run this legislation because I know the history."

If the bill were to pass, and if North Salt Lake were to win its lawsuit, the city would not have to petition Salt Lake County to annex the land. The land is also within Salt Lake County's boundaries, so North Salt Lake is required to petition both Salt Lake City and the county to annex it.

Salt Lake County passed a resolution last year saying that it would deny North Salt Lake's request to annex the land if the city were to win its lawsuit against Salt Lake.

Representatives from both Salt Lake County and Salt Lake City on Wednesday spoke against the measure.

Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake City, said during debate that he believed the bill was meant as a way to influence Salt Lake City to reach a settlement with North Salt Lake.

"Why are we coming in and throwing a piece of legislation into the mix, which really quite frankly is meant to be a hammer to hang over their heads?" he asked. "It seems to me, this doesn't sound like a very sound process or is setting a good precedent for the orderly resolution of issues like this."

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E-mail: nwarburton@desnews.com