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Show Bountiful Redevelopment Agency abolished By G.BRETT HART BOUNTIFUL The Bountiful City Council voted 4 to 1 Aug. 22 to dissolve Bountiful' s Redevelopment Redevelop-ment Agency and sell its downtown properties in an attempt to pay off the agency's outstanding bond debt of $1.5 million. The motion requires that the agency sell all of its properties between be-tween the areas of 400 N, and 500 11 I.!.... -I. ! I l il . S. and 100 W., and that it allow area businesses to operate freely without any further agency involvement. If insufficient funds to repay the debt are accumulated through the sale of the RDA's existing properties, proper-ties, the motion calls for the city of Bountiful to assume the outstanding debt in the form of a temporary budget item until all debts are paid in full. At the request of City Manager Tom Hardy and City Attorney Layne Forbes, the council hesitantly agreed to postpone the effective date of motion until the day after the council's next meeting, Sept. 6. Both Hardy and Forbes voiced concerns about unforeseen legal ramifications involved with dissolving dissolv-ing the agency at that time. Forbes said, "My main concern is how the motion will affect a pending lawsuit to determine the value of a piece of property the RDA acquired some time ago. The RDA is named as the plaintiff in the case. "I'm not sure what exactly will happen if we dissolve the RDA, but I've been around enough to know that it could damage the pending lawsuit." Forbes said he was also concerned concern-ed because he did not know whether or not it was legal for the city to r assume the RDA's outstanding debt or how the dissolution of the RDA program would affect existing contracts con-tracts and obligations that are now the responsibility of the RDA. Hardy argued that if the RDA was dissolved Aug. 22, it would have been difficult to sell RDA properties because the legal entity owning the properties would no longer exist To sell a property, the property must be owned by a legal entity. The RDA was established 12 years ago in an attempt to revitalize rundown areas of Bountiful by purchasing pur-chasing and refurbishing them in order to attract investors and new businesses to the area. Bountiful' s Shipley building, Gateway Park and Main Street have all been past RDA projects. RDA projects are ftinded in part SEE COUNCIL A-2 i Council CONT. FROM A-1 by rents paid by businesses located on RDA properties; however, the majority of RDA funding comes from tax increments. A tax increment is a portion of the property tax which is automatically set aside and would otherwise be divided among city, school district and other entities that qualify for property taxes. The downtown project furnished main street with the sidewalks, parking and lighting it now has and was paid for by the $1.5 million bond. Councilwoman Barbara Holt, who sponsored the bill, argued that this type of a project did not generate ge-nerate any type of increment. She said that because it was not attracting attrac-ting business to the area, and because the $1.5 million burden would have to be shouldered by other property taxpayers, the agency agen-cy should be dissolved. Holt said that her motion came in response to what she called the negative downtown effect of the agency. Holt claimed that the costly $1.5 million downtown project had at tracted only two interested developers de-velopers to the areas and did not produce a single proposal that met the needs of the downtown merchants. mer-chants. "In the last council meeting, the council discussed its feelings concerning con-cerning the direction the downtown project has taken. None of us were really pleased with the way things were going. Finally, I decided that something had to be done," said Holt. Holt estimated the RDA's property prop-erty holdings to equal approximately approximate-ly $1 million. Although other council members were hesitant to criticize the motion, mo-tion, councilman Harold Shafter and Redevelopment Agency administrator ad-ministrator Lana Hardy were vocally against the measure. Shafter said that he felt the agency agen-cy was responsible for many positive additions and renovations to Bountiful of which he and many others were proud. Mrs. Hardy said that she was in shock when she realized what the council was trying to do. "I think there are ways for the council to accomplish what they're trying to do, but this is not one of them. I don't think they need to abolish the agency, ' ' said Mrs. Hardy. Mrs. Hardy has been the agency's agen-cy's administrator since December 1988. |