Not only did the Legislature and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. take away the city's best tool to get residents to sell their land - the right to condemn property - but property owners also are not budging for the city's next-best tool: a straight-up offer of more cash.

Senorina Fernandez has lived in the neighborhood west of Wall Avenue, just north of the transit center, all of her life.

Last year, the city offered her $85,000 for her home and her share of some family property. After the Legislature passed Senate Bill 184 - and even before the governor signed it Monday - the city upped its offer to $165,000.

That amount would allow Fernandez to buy a nicer home, with the space and storage she has lacked in the home where she reared six children.

"It's tempting. But this is my home," Fernandez said Wednesday. "I've been here all my life. It's not a matter of better homes."

SB184 amended the state's Redevelopment Agency (RDA) act, prohibiting cities from using the power of eminent domain in redevelopment areas.

The bill's sponsor cited Ogden's Wal-Mart project as an abuse he wanted to stop.

Wal-Mart wants to build a store on a 21-acre area downtown that is filled with decades-old houses and businesses. The city's RDA Board - which is the City Council - declared the area blighted last summer, and has been negotiating to buy options for those properties since then.

Most of the 34 homeowners and eight business-property owners have signed options to sell, but there are a handful of holdouts, including Fernandez.

Richard McConkie, Ogden's deputy director of community development, said Wednesday he could not say how many property owners have not signed options.

The city still considers the Wal-Mart project as vital to downtown redevelopment, McConkie said. "We have not thrown in the towel."

Ultimately, though, it will depend on Wal-Mart. The city has a contract requiring it to line up all the properties by the end of April.

"It will depend on how patient Wal-Mart is," McConkie said.

The giant retailer has no "drop-dead" date, said Eric Berger, the company's regional community-affairs manager in Seattle.

"We'll continue to evaluate whether it makes sense to put a store at that location," he said Wednesday.

Wal-Mart may evaluate whether to negotiate directly with property owners, he said.

Cristina and Milton Rodriguez are awaiting the results of a third appraisal of their property, which includes their home, a vacant house next door and a lot nearby.

But it's not going to matter how much the city offers, says Milton Rodriguez. "I'm not selling. I don't want to go anywhere."

Cristina Rodriguez is just a block from her job at the Internal Revenue Service, and they have enough land - about an acre altogether - for her husband to expand his chain-link fencing business. She doesn't want to leave the neighborhood where she grew up.

"We don't want to move. They don't understand that," she said. "We are not interested."

Milton Rodriguez wishes he could be compensated for the time he has lost. A year ago, he was ready to build a shop for his business, but he waited. Since then, the price of steel has nearly doubled.

"I'm going to be out more money because they put us on hold for 14 months."

kmoulton@sltrib.com