A $3.5 million check will soon be in the mail, ultimately ending a five-year battle between Salt Lake City and North Salt Lake over 80 acres of pristine foothill land.

On Tuesday, the Salt Lake County Council put the final stamp of approval on a $1.75 million budget adjustment to buy 60 acres of the land from North Salt Lake. Salt Lake City leaders matched that offer.

The land battle almost even made it to the courts, but ultimately ended up in a settlement that retained most of the land as open space but allowed North Salt Lake to develop some of it.

The two cities in 2006 sued each other over control of the 80 acres owned by North Salt Lake but lying within Salt Lake City's boundaries. North Salt Lake's lawsuit sought to disconnect the land into the Davis County city and had been scheduled for a hearing next Tuesday.

Salt Lake City's lawsuit sought to condemn the land so it could not be developed.

The deal ended the pair of lawsuits.

In 2002, North Salt Lake began seeking to have the land annexed into its borders, but Salt Lake City denied a disconnection attempt in 2004. Salt Lake City wants to preserve the pristine land — remnants of the prehistoric Lake Bonneville shoreline — and North Salt Lake wants to sell some of it for development.

The deal will allow 13 acres to be developed as North Salt Lake wishes. The rest will remain untouched.

The North Salt Lake border will move southward to encompass about 21 acres currently in Salt Lake City. The 13 developable acres and about eight undevelopable acres will become part of North Salt Lake.

That would leave North Salt Lake free to do what it wants, although 6.7 acres of steep slope would be placed under a conservation easement.

North Salt Lake has said in the past it wants to use the land for a cemetery, a park, trails and perhaps some homes. City Manager Collin Wood said Friday that the city doesn't yet know what it will do with the land obtained under the agreement.

Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County will jointly buy the remaining 60 or so acres from North Salt Lake for $3.5 million, with half coming from each entity.

On Tuesday night, the Salt Lake City Council voted adjust its common boundary with North Salt Lake, moving the boundary approximately 700 feet south. The boundary change was part of the settlement agreement between the two cities.

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Contributing: Jared Page

E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com