Farmington • The City Council decided to keep the “farm in Farmington,” unanimously approving an agricultural protection for a 23-acre piece of property owned by a sixth-generation Utah farmer and his family.
“I’m pleased that they have come around,” Alan Bangerter said after Tuesday’s 5-0 vote.
Bangerter has been fighting the city and the Utah Department of Transportation — and its power of eminent domain — for months to keep a plot at 650 West and about 500 South from becoming a city park with soccer fields.
He gathered nearly 8,000 signatures of support through an online petition, and his story has been widely publicized in the news and through social media.
Hoping to save the property for his children and grandchildren who want to continue farming, Bangerter moved to turn the property into a Utah Agricultural Protection Area (APA).
The final step was getting approval from the City Council.
(Kathy Stephenson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Farmington residents brought signs to Tuesday's City Council meeting to show support for preserving Alan Bangerter's farm.
During a public hearing before the council vote, dozens of fellow farmers, neighbors, soccer moms, customers and former employees who worked on the Bangerter farmlands as teenagers filled the chambers. Many carried signs of support and at times shouted at the council.
Everyone who came to the podium spoke in favor of the APA designation and allowing Bangerter family members to maintain their property rights.
“We are asking the City Council to do what is right and not just do what is easy and convenient,” resident Rob Ramage said. “Can you look me in the eye and say this is the only place to put the soccer fields?”
Like many who spoke during the two-hour hearing, Ramage ended by saying: “Let’s keep the farm in Farmington,” which became the rallying cry for the evening.
For Lisa Webster, the issue was one of property rights. “Property owners have the right NOT to have their property developed,” she said, adding that many residents would lose faith in the council if it “actively pursued taking any of Mr. Bangerter’s property.”
Putting sod on the land for soccer fields “would be a travesty,” she said. “Please keep a small piece of Farmington’s heritage alive.”
That is what the City Council thought it was doing Monday, when it sent a letter to Bangerter’s attorney asking the farmer to consider putting the property into a “permanent conservation easement.” Under that more restrictive designation, the land could continue to be farmed but would be protected from ever being developed.
“The easement,” said Mayor Jim Talbot, “would give it an extra layer of protection.”
But that only stirred the already emotional pot for residents such as Stu Webster, Bangerter’s neighbor.
“I have a problem with the conservation easement,” he said. “Mr. Bangerter can take care of his property on his own quite well.”
Bangerter also said he preferred the APA, because it provides the “agricultural protection we need” to continue farming, but still allows his children or grandchildren to sell the land in case of an emergency.
While Bangerter got the APA he was seeking, he said he hopes the council will work with UDOT to find an alternative piece of property to place soccer fields. “Until that’s in writing,” he said, “I won’t feel at ease.”
While an APA designation would protect his property from any future zoning changes, government agencies still could exercise the right of eminent domain after exhausting other possible remedies, said Councilman Brett Anderson.
“The APA does not stop UDOT from doing whatever it wants to do,” he said. If agency officials decide that other parcels of land are too expensive or unworkable for soccer fields, “they will do whatever they want.”
The problems for Bangerter began last October when UDOT and the Federal Highway Administration finalized the route for the West Davis Corridor — a 19-mile freeway heading northwest from Legacy Parkway through Davis and Weber counties.
To build the road, UDOT will take about 8 acres of Bangerter farmland as well as an adjacent 11-acre park — with soccer fields — owned by Farmington. Both properties are near 1100 West and Glover Lane.
While UDOT will pay Bangerter for his property, the state must replace the city park with another one of equal size elsewhere in Farmington.
City officials had told UDOT that their preferred site was 11 acres of the 23-acre plot that Bangerter owns just south of the new recreation center and adjacent to an existing park.
Councilman Doug Anderson said the city is in a Catch-22, because no matter where the fields are relocated, a property owner is going to be upset. “At the end of the day,” he said, “someone’s property is going to get condemned.”
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