The changes are significant - and many redevelopment agencies (RDAs) now under way would not have been allowed under the proposed rules. For example, Farmington's open-field RDA, created earlier this decade on the west side of Interstate 15 would not have happened. Neither would ones in Draper, South Jordan and Riverdale.

The source of the plan is the Utah League of Cities and Towns, ironically the lobbying organization that represents Farmington and every other city in Utah. The group unveiled its plan during a legislative subcommittee hearing Wednesday.

"This is conceptual," said Eric Jergensen, a Salt Lake City Council member.

The plan is a step back for municipalities because it curbs their ability to draw in property taxes to facilitate and entice land development.

It has three major components:

l What is blight? The league calls for a redefinition of blight - missing sidewalks, curbs and gutters and inadequate sewer systems - which is necessary to create an RDA. Currently, the presence of open green space can be considered as blight. Under the new rules, open fields would no longer fall under that definition.

"You cannot take the old family barn that has been leaning and call it blighted," said Lincoln Shurtz, a legislative analyst for the league.

l An RDA that isn't an RDA. This concept asks lawmakers to create two additional definitions of municipal development. It adds economic development - job creation - and community development - generic development - to Utah's RDA statute. Each category would be used for different types of projects.

The three-tier approach is significant. Under the community-development category, for example, taxing agencies such as schools and counties would have to agree to let the city take their share of increased property taxes. Eighty-five percent of the RDAs created since 1993 would be community-development projects.

l What about condemnation? The league appears to want to return the power of eminent domain within RDAs. But league members lack consensus on the issue and gave no additional details to the task force.

"There would be serious opposition" to adding eminent domain, said Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo. Bramble sponsored an RDA-rewrite earlier this year that prohibits cities from condemning land within RDA boundaries.

And one tax-advocacy group has concerns with parts of the plan.

"Their proposal is making progress toward addressing the blight issue, but makes little or no progress in addressing the issue of subsidizing economic development that would occur in the state anyway," said Mike Jerman, vice president of the Utah Taxpayers Association.

Of particular concern is whether the community-development arm would allow a city to use property taxes to fund a soccer stadium for Real Salt Lake, a Major League Soccer expansion team. Bramble's RDA bill prohibited that.

Whether the plan would make it to the full Legislature or not is not clear.

"There are many things I personally like," Bramble said. "There are a few things that I would strongly try to defeat.

jsantini@sltrib.com

What are RDAs?

RDAs (redevelopment agencies) originally were designed to help cities rejuvenate economic dead zones. They work by allowing communities to tap the increase in property taxes created by the improvements to pay for work such as street and utility upgrades.

The RDAs have come under fire in recent years as taxpayer organizations, and some school officials, have argued that some cities are tapping taxes to aid businesses, particularly retailers, that would be coming anyhow.