Sandy is kicking in another $500,000 to meet owner Gary McDougal's firm price of $2.3 million on the property he previously had declared as having low value because of obstacles to developing it.
The deal was negotiated by powerful Utah House Speaker Greg Curtis, McDougal's attorney, and observers say that clout with both county and Sandy City officials might have given McDougal an edge. They wonder, however, if it is a good deal for county taxpayers.
Besides McDougal's claim of low value when being assessed for tax purposes and high value when offering it for sale to the county, he has just been told by the County Assessor's Office that his "Greenbelt Exemption" granted last summer, which allowed him to pay just $1.68 in taxes on a valuation of $146, is being revoked because there is no evidence he is using the property for agriculture, which is a requirement.
McDougal has successfully appealed his property assessments over the years, resulting in valuations for most years of less than $100,000. In 2005, the county raised it to $187,570 and last year, without the Greenbelt Exemption, it is set at $295,600.
That's still a fraction of the $2.3 million McDougal will get if the Salt Lake County Council gives final approval to the sale.
Lee Colvin, the county's real estate officer, and John Hiskey, Sandy's deputy mayor, both say the value is in the ability to preserve the open space and link the Bonneville Shoreline Trail between Draper and Sandy that McDougal currently has blocked on his property.
Also, Sandy has agreed to a preservation easement on 40 acres of its Hidden Valley natural park, which with the 10 acres McDougal is selling, will mean 50 acres of pristine land will be protected from development.
The independent appraiser hired to assess the value says the $2.3 million is based on some "extraordinary assumptions" that the land would ever be developed without the sale, that Sandy will provide an access road, and the number of building lots it could hold if it was not preserved and eventually developed.
County Council member Jim Bradley thinks the purchase is a waste of taxpayer money and in a memo to fellow council members he cites a letter McDougal himself wrote to justify a lower valuation years ago. That letter cites access and earthquake fault problems, and states that 75 percent of the property is too steep to develop.
Bradley argues that the county and Sandy could negotiate trail access and preservation easements without the expensive purchase. But the council is set to vote to finalize it on Tuesday.
p.rolly@sltrib.com
