The Davis County community has until July 1 to appeal a decision by the Salt Lake City Council to deny a request from North Salt Lake City to disconnect the property it owns inside the Salt Lake City limits.

“We were forced into litigation when Salt Lake City denied our request to disconnect,” North Salt Lake Attorney D. Michael Nielsen said Tuesday. “If we don't file within 30 days, we wave our rights to appeal the decision. They are the ones who have backed us into this corner.”

In the meantime, a band of North Salt Lake residents are working with open space advocates to raise money to try to buy the property. But a deadline to request funds from the state's LaRay McCallister Open space fund is also looming, as is the cut off date for them to gather enough signatures to put the question of how best to preserve the property to a public vote.

The McCallister fund, created by the Legislature, gives matching funds to cities and other entities to preserve open space. North Salt Lake City officials and the citizen's group have applied for grants from the McCallister fund but they each have their own idea of how it should be used.

North Salt Lake has requested $900,000 to preserve 50 acres as open space along with a 20-acre residential development and a 10-acre cemetery, a trailhead, parking lot and bathroom facilities.

The citizen's group wants the land kept as it is.

“We want all of the 80 acres to be preserved,” said resident Juan Arce-Larreta.