The contentious land squabble - 2nd District Court is expected to rule on the disconnection early next year - has polarized North Salt Lake officials from their southern counterparts in Salt Lake City and County for four years.
After Tuesday's vote, the fissure cracked wider still.
"It's bush league," complained North Salt Lake City Councilwoman Lisa Watts Baskin, who argued the move "usurps the court's authority." "It's fundamentally unfair and un-American," she said.
Salt Lake County Council Chairman Cort Ashton countered that the pristine slope perched above Beck Street originally was condemned to be protected as watershed. And, he notes, the Salt Lake City Council strengthened the zoning restriction last year, tagging it natural open space.
"There shouldn't be any houses up there at all," he said. "I had to act." Four members of the Salt Lake City Council were on hand for the decision, which Councilman Dave Buhler, who is running for mayor in the capital, later praised as appropriate.
"It's good for them to send a clear signal," he said.
Plans for the North Salt Lake-owned property remain nebulous but include a combination of housing, trails and a cemetery.
North Salt Lake City Manager Collin Wood acknowledges the Davis County city has met with "several developers" including Ivory Homes, but would not say how much of the acreage they hoped to build on.
Previous plans called for housing on up to 25 acres. County Councilman Joe Hatch, who toured the bench before the vote, said it would be a crime and a sin to "ruin it" with housing.
"For anyone who goes up there, to look around and say, 'Hell, we ought to put homes here,' I'd have to say, look at your soul." But North Salt Lake's new mayor, Shanna Schaefermeyer, insists county leaders do not have a mandate - despite 71 percent approval from voters earlier this month of a $48 million open-space bond.
"County residents said they just liked open space," she said.
"They didn't say they liked that open space." Even if North Salt Lake prevails in court, attorneys for the county note that any land usage requires County Council consent.
