Holladay blight designation leaves residents blazing

It isn't easy for city officials to make friends when they're throwing around terms like "blight," "eminent domain" and "redevelopment."

Nonetheless, Holladay is trying.

The Holladay City Council, acting as a redevelopment agency board, held a four-hour public hearing this past week about a proposed 59-acre project in its city center. As if that wasn't enough, the council members were jeered, mocked and threatened over their jobs for trying to explain that Holladay cannot use eminent domain for a redevelopment project and that "blight" does not necessarily translate to "crack house."

"Why don't you get up one at a time and tell us how many of your constituents called you, wrote you and begged you to redevelop all of Holladay to configure something that we don't have right now?" said George Schmidt, who lives near the proposed RDA. "Then tell us what day that your terms end so we can make plans of our own."

Steve Peterson, a City Council member who conducted the hearing, felt particularly beleaguered. "It was not a campaign night for me," he said. "That was a totally different meeting than I anticipated. They saw (the RDA) as an affront to their life-long earnings as opposed to a help to them."

The proposed project covers a major business district at the intersection of 2300 East, Murray-Holladay Road and Holladay Boulevard. The area has a mix of old and new shops, some with bright marquees and lively businesses and others with dark windows and weed-filled sidewalks. An RDA project typically uses blight designations to begin redevelopment on property in a certain area.

Sometimes a city uses eminent domain to acquire the blighted property, but most often eminent domain is too politically unpopular for City Council members to use and expect to keep their positions. The project uses increased tax funds from the redeveloped area for utilities, roads or other improvements near the project.

Judging from the 200-plus crowd at Wednesday's hearing, it's an important topic for the residents and business owners who overflowed the gym of the former Holladay Elementary. But judging from the comments, not many of the meeting participants understood what the city can, cannot, will and will not do during the project, if it is approved.