From Deseret News archives:
Kennecott drops land-sale complaint against South Jordan
In November, Kennecott Land, the development arm of Kennecott Utah Copper, filed a complaint against South Jordan in 3rd District Court, accusing the city of making "back-door" deals to pave the way for a high-density housing development that the company said threatened the character of Kennecott's master-planned Daybreak community and could make a traffic nightmare for visitors to the new LDS temple to be built there.
The land is held by the Jack W. Kunkler Trust, and legally only 25 percent of it could be sold each year. However, more of the land could be sold if the city threatened condemnation. That, Kennecott Land contended, was just what the city did — threatened to condemn the land to make way for its sale to Boyer.
The land is located just west of Bangerter Highway, sandwiched between the highway and the entrance to Daybreak.
According to the complaint, a March 2003 agreement between South Jordan and Kennecott Land laid the groundwork for Daybreak, a community based on principles of walkability and environmental sustainability. As part of the agreement, Kennecott Land agreed to preserve at least 30 percent of its Daybreak land as open space.
The agreement also called for the city to consider the impacts on Daybreak of any proposed development of the adjacent land. That impact was ignored in the Boyer deal, Kennecott Land contended at the time.
But now, Kennecott officials have dropped the complaint, which was never formally served to the city as a lawsuit, saying they were happy with the way the city has handled the issue since November.
"Our primary concern, of course, was a lack of transparency," Kennecott Land spokeswoman Vicki Varela said. "Shortly after the complaint was filed. they started a much more transparent public process, so we withdrew the complaint. We now see things progressing in an open manner. We have a very open dialogue with them now, so we're satisfied. We had a bad month and a good four-year relationship."
The City Council initially backed the Boyer land deal, but shortly after the complaint was filed, the council voted to terminate it.
Court records showed the case had been dismissed Thursday.
South Jordan City Manager Ricky Horst could not be reached for comment Friday.
E-mail: dsmeath@desnews.com
