This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The latest entrants in Utah's prison-relocation debate include a sewer-treatment plant, a family that owns a winery in California's Sonoma Valley and a 90-year-old man who made a fortune reselling surplus government property.
They are the owners of land the Prison Relocation Commission recently added to its short list of potential sites. Each of the final five parcels will undergo a detailed analysis looking at factors ranging from environmental concerns to where to run power lines and, of course, how much to pay for the property.
"There is a lot to be done, and there really are not shortcuts to this," said Bob Nardi, a consultant with New Jersey-based Louis Berger Group, who is managing the site-selection review.
The goal of the commission, whose seven voting members are state lawmakers, is to use Nardi's analysis to narrow the list from five to one by the end of the summer and to have a 4,000-bed prison complex constructed by the end of the decade. They face opposition from the communities that surround these sites.
Here's a look at each of the five parcels, who owns them and what happens next, starting with the new additions:
—
Grantsville • When Darrell Nielsen got out of the U.S. Army in 1946, he began buying up what were known then as "war assets," essentially anything the military no longer wanted. Over the years, he bought trucks, land and even missile silos on the cheap, then found buyers who needed the goods.
He turned this practice into a lucrative business that allowed him to buy thousands of acres in the Tooele Valley. He sold a piece of that to Wal-Mart, which now runs a distribution center about 2 miles northwest of the outskirts of Grantsville.
When the commission made a second call for potential prison sites in late December, Nielsen, who recently turned 90, offered the state its pick from 4,200 acres that surround the distribution center.
"It is time, maybe, to sell some property," said Nielsen, who lives in Bountiful and is building a vacation home in St. George. "If they are willing to pay the market price and I think it is a fair enough deal, then I'm willing to sell it."
Grantsville Mayor Brent Marshall understands Nielsen's desire to make some money from his vast land holdings, but he doesn't want to see the prison move to his area. Marshall plans to meet with Nielsen in the next few days to offer "contingency plans," though he wouldn't offer any details as to what those would be. His goal is to get Nielsen to withdraw his land from consideration.
—
Fairfield • In the early 1990s, the sewage-treatment plant for most of central Salt Lake County decided to buy 2,700 acres in the sparsely populated Cedar Valley, west of Utah Lake. The idea was that if the Central Valley Water Reclamation Facility ever needed a new place to dump some solid waste, it could truck it out to this cheap Utah County site.
Ever since, the land has been a dry wheat farm. Nardi's team approached Central Valley last year and asked if it would be willing to sell about 500 acres for a prison. The sewage-treatment plant was willing, but when the commission picked its first list of finalists in December, this site didn't make the cut. It is 28 miles away from the prison in Draper, which the consultants decided was too far. But when the commission asked Nardi to broaden his search, he revisited this area in Fairfield, which sits to the west of Eagle Mountain.
—
Salt Lake City • For months, the commission has considered land just off of Interstate 80 and 7200 West, close to the Salt Lake City International Airport. But last week, it added an additional 1,000 acres to the potential site.
The owners of that land are the Pedroncelli family, which operates the Pedroncelli Winery in the Sonoma Valley. This family has been active in the ongoing debate about how and when to develop Salt Lake's Northwest Quadrant and has proposed a housing development on the land near the Great Salt Lake.
The commission is also looking at adjacent property owned by Rio Tinto, the parent company of Kennecott Utah Copper, and land owned by descendants of the Gillmor family, which helped the National Audubon Society create a bird refuge nearby.
With the wetlands in the area, the consultants will scour this 4,000-acre tract split among multiple owners to find a site they believe could hold the penitentiary.
Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker has vowed to fight any effort to locate the prison to the city. And some duck clubs are worried that a prison near the lake could ruin their recreational opportunities. The Gillmor Audubon Sanctuary hasn't staked out a definitive position just yet.
"We are extremely concerned about barbed wire and lights in close vicinity of where our birds are flying," said Ella Sorenson, sanctuary manager. "But if the prison doesn't go there, we worry about something worse moving in."
She mentioned a housing development, which would draw feral cats that may attack the birds.
—
Eagle Mountain • The controversial founder of this fast-growing city in northern Utah County has offered up about 600 acres for a prison. John Walden owns the most land in the area and has repeatedly clashed with the city's elected leaders over development ideas. He's open to building the prison at the southern border of the city, while Eagle Mountain Mayor Chris Pengra and an active community group are fighting that effort, worried that the prison will depress housing values.
Pengra also opposes the Fairfield site, which is just west of the land Walden is offering to the commission.
—
Tooele County • The Miller Motorsports Park, nestled between Grantsville and Tooele, is a cornerstone of Tooele County. And its neighbor could be the prison. That land, like the motorsports park, is owned by the family of the late Larry H. Miller. County and city leaders angrily oppose such a move, saying it would mar an area where they envision restaurants and hotels.
—
Next steps • Each site must undergo a boundary and topographical survey, a wetland and environmental review, a subsurface test and a study of the costs of providing electricity, gas, water, sewer and telecommunications. Nardi's team is well down this path on the Salt Lake, Eagle Mountain and Miller sites and is just getting started in Grantsville and Fairfield.
He expects the cost estimates for building and providing utilities to vary greatly, as would the cost of the land itself, which will be based on appraisals that are now underway. Estimates for the total project begin at $500 million.