The project would be linked by gondola to Malan's Basin, about 2 1/2 miles above Ogden, where Salt Lake area developer Chris Peterson plans a housing subdivision and resort. Ultimately, the gondola Peterson has promised to build would extend to Snowbasin Ski Resort, owned by Peterson's father-in-law, Earl Holding.

John Patterson, Ogden's chief administrative officer, declined to provide details about the vast project, including whether it would entail selling the city's golf course. Mayor Matthew Godfrey was out of town Thursday and unavailable for comment.

"It's premature to announce it at this time," Patterson said. "There are many issues that need to be resolved. Any one of them is a deal killer."

Patterson did say that Mount Ogden Park - adjacent to the golf course - where residents play tennis and soccer and enter foothill trails, would remain in place.

In fact, he said, the trail system, one of Ogden's jewels, would be enhanced.

Peterson's plans for a gondola and resort in Malan's Basin on a 1,400-acre parcel he bought last year have been discussed for months.

It's the proposal for housing on Ogden's east bench that is new.

City Councilman Rick Safsten, who has been briefed by the mayor, called it "a massive, ambitious project that would forever change Ogden."

Another councilman, Doug Stephens, said he was told by the mayor that Peterson would buy and redesign the golf course to accommodate luxury homes.

John Lindquist, a prominent businessman whose family helped finance Lindquist Field for the Ogden Raptor minor-league baseball team in the 1990s, said he was briefed with a half-dozen others earlier this month by Peterson.

"He had a preliminary drawing of what the side of the mountain would look like if WSU, he and the city agreed on a merger of interests to create a new residential district that would encompass Malan's Basin," Lindquist said.

Homes would be built around the golf course's fairways, Lindquist said. "We understood he had the capital to do that if he obtains the land," said Lindquist, who called the project a "great idea."

The housing in Ogden's foothills would be the financial engine for the gondola and subdivision-resort in Malan's Basin, Lindquist said.

Peterson did not respond Thursday to an e-mail seeking comment. WSU spokesman John Kowalewski said the university has been approached, but given no concrete proposals, involving a land purchase or swap.

Meanwhile, City Council members are being informed about the massive project in private meetings with the mayor one or two at a time, a process some of them reject.

Newly elected Councilwoman Dorrene Jeske said she believes the meetings violate the spirit - if not the letter - of Utah's open-meetings law. She is writing a letter to the mayor rejecting his invitation to meet.

"It should be conducted in the council as a whole," Jeske said.

Councilwoman Amy Wicks said she had not decided whether to attend a Monday session with the mayor.

"I don't want to shut down the lines of communication," Wicks said. "But I have trouble with this going on behind closed doors."

Mikel Vause, a WSU English professor and member of the new grass-roots group Smart Growth Ogden, said proposals to build homes in the foothills have been rejected in the past for good reasons, including the desire for open space and seismic and flood-plain issues.

"The one great thing Ogden has been able to preserve is foothills and public access to those foothills. We've lost that all along the Wasatch Front. Why would Ogden want to look like Centerville or Bountiful?"

kmoulton@sltrib.com