It is a vote by the Taylorsville City Council that comes at a strange time as the city is eight days shy of a moratorium cutoff date that would halt new RDAs as set out in legislation that remains in play.

When Provo Republican Sen. Curtis Bramble offered a compromise to his bill last week, he called for a moratorium on RDAs until June 2006. Any community that hadn't launched its blight study by Feb. 15 couldn't move forward until the moratorium was lifted.

Bramble predicted that cities would jump to try to get RDAs off the ground, and there still may be a charge to change the cutoff date.

“I understand there are attempts to amend [Senate Bill 184],” Bramble said. “My position is Feb. 15 because I didn't want to see this last-ditch effort by cities.”

Taylorsville isn't the only city trying to get an RDA started while Bramble's bill remains active.

Holladay also created an RDA study area encompassing the Cottonwood Mall. Like Taylorsville, Holladay leaders there said they weren't trying to skirt Bramble's efforts. Instead, city officials and business owners wanted to get a possible RDA on the record.

In Taylorsville, one City Council member worried they were moving too quickly.

“We've never done one of these before and now we have four of them,” said Bud Catlin. “It just seems these have come up awful quick.”

Taylorsville Mayor Janice Auger says she knows city officials may be wasting their time if Bramble's bill is passed as it is written today. She doesn't deny that she wants the moratorium lifted out.

“Would I do something to not have [a moratorium]? Yeah, I would,” Auger said. “But I don't think I have that much influence.”

Auger is the president of the Utah League of Cities and Towns, which supports Bramble's compromise bill.

In Taylorsville, two adjacent blight studies cover an area between 2700 West and 2200 West along 4700 South. A third stretches along Redwood Road between 5000 South to an area north of 4700 South. The fourth is found on the western edge of town between 4015 West and Bangerter Highway near 5400 South.

The study authorization is the first step of an RDA process as cities must find blight before tapping potential increases in property taxes. RDAs are designed so cities can help remake economic dead zones by redoing infrastructure and using tax money to spur development.

The agencies have come under fire recently as other taxing agencies, such as schools, counties and mosquito-abatement districts, lose improved property taxes for as many as 30 years.