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Show ; : : West Btfl. gets 'death knell' from WX ty's tax base. At the beginning of the sparsely attended public hearing, West Bountiful City Councilman Bruce Talbot told the Woods Cross Coun cil that as a former West Bountiful planning commissioner for five years, he knew the land in question had always been a part of West Bountiful's plans for expansion. By JUDY JENSEN Editor WOODS CROSS West Bountiful Boun-tiful Mayor Jerry Thompson got what he considers to be the death knell for his city last week when the Woods Cross City council agreed to proceed with a proposed annexation. anne-xation. The property in question borders the north side of 500 South beginning begin-ning at Redwood Road and continuing con-tinuing east to approximately 1100 W. The property is currently a part of unincorporated Davis County. According to Mayor Thompson it is the only parcel of land still available that could be commercially commer-cially developed to improve the ci- r ' "We've been operating on the assumption that the property in question was going to be a part of our city. We'd like to be good neighbors with you and foster good relations, but this move won't do that," he said. Woods Cross City Councilman David H. Wright Jr. responded, "Six years ago we asked West Bountiful if 500 South could be the boundary and they refused; therefore, there-fore, we don't feel there's any problem going ahead with the annexation." Mayor Thompson, who had been excused from his city's council coun-cil meeting to attend the public hearing, asked the council to "Place yourselves in the position of West Bountiful. We have no further possibility of industrial development. de-velopment. That's it! When all is said and done, if you take this land, 10 years from now you can say, 'Look what I did for Woods Cross, but look what I did to West Bountiful; Bounti-ful; I killed it.' Don't take the heart of our community," he said. He went on to tell the council that he thought there had always been a gentlemen's agreement on the 500 South boundary between the two cities. He added that West Bountiful could provide the same services for the residents and businesses in the area that Woods O CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 West Btfl. gets 'death knell' CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Cross could provide. "If these people peo-ple who are asking for annexation have deep concerns let us help you address them so we can survive as a city," he said. In closing, Mayor Thompson asked the council to defer a decision deci-sion on the matter until it could be discussed further. "I ask you men who understand to consider what you're going to do. I would never ask my council to take something from another community if we didn't need it and you don't need this property. "We don't have that much," he told the council, "but what we have is darn good and we want to survive." Former Woods Cross Mayor Lawrence Urry told the council that during his term West Bountiful tried to annex a trailer court. "The trailer court is not a tax advantage but a tax burden. We decided we could not roll over and play dead so we fought it and won. The point I'm trying to make is it wasn't Woods Cross that broke the gentleman's gentle-man's agreement,. I would speak for annexation," he said. At the end of the 45-minute hearing, hear-ing, the council, acting on advice from Mayor Ralph Argyle, agreed to defer a decision until further discussions. dis-cussions. Later in the evening, the council passed a specific annexation annexa-tion policy declarationwhich opened the way for the council to approve the actual annexation and C-2 zone on the 107 acre parcel. That action was scheduled for the Sept. 20 meeting. West Bountiful had five days to protest the decision. Mayor Thompson prepared the protest and filed it with the Davis County Boundary Commission on Thursday. Thurs-day. He said he expects the commission com-mission to rule on the matter within 15 days. |