NSL Makes Plans to Develop Disputed Border Land

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) In a recent settlement with Salt Lake City over disputed open space, North Salt Lake got just 13 acres of the original 80 acres it hoped to develop. Mayor Shauna Schaefermeyer says that's better than nothing:

"If we would have been able to develop the 80 acres the way we wanted to, that would have been a beautiful community up there," says Shaefermeyer. "But we're constrained now. Probably part it will be sold to developers and it will reap a signficant amount of money for the city."

For more than two years, North Salt Lake and the Capital City have been at odds over 80 acres along their border. The settlement requires 67 acres to be preserved as open space because it's a "geo-antiquity" showcasing remnants of the ancient Lake Bonneville Shoreline. Mayor Schaefermeyer says North Salt Lake may build a park on its 13 acres because the natural open space Salt Lake City insisted on doesn't meet her citizens' needs:

"They wanted it to be in the natural vegetation, to be just naturally nothing," says Schaefermeyer. "But that doesn't constitute a park that people can actually go to with a bowery and places where children can play and families can enjoy themselves."

Before deciding on the park's location or selling any of the land to housing developers, Mayor Schaefermeyer says North Salt Lake will create a master plan for the disputed land.

Email to a friendPosted in KCPW Newsroom. Copyright 2008 KCPW