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Show SPECIAL c i " -- r- - i I (. v - THE NATIONAL r I L r.. ... c OLLEC'fiOWS i,! n r. 1 !J r'- T r i j i i ( t i 1 .. Business news and commentary 3Bg?BaBmaa Crossroads snarled in Segal ssues is the Sb5 million by Milt Policzer Enterprise Staff Writer office-retail-parkin- g complex planned Okay, so you're running a clean respectable business and you don't have rats prancing around in your basement or fires breaking out in your kitchen. You ought to be free to continue merrily on vourwav with vour business. ' Right? Well, maybe. If your nice little store or your house or office for that matter, happens to be within the boundaries of your citys redevelopment plan, it's just possible it could be condemned to make way for a land use city officials like better. The reality of that possibility could be discovered if Crossroads Plaza developers are unable to come to terms with Verner and Sadye Zinik. the last holdouts on the proposed Crossroads site, and tiie matter get o conn. Crossroads, if youll remember from past episodes. for seven acres between Main Street. First South. West Temple and South Temple. The Redevelopment Agency was successful in adding that block to its plan last week and now is having the Z.inik property appraised in anticipation of condemnation if the Ziniks refuse to sell (sec related story, page 2). That condemnation proceeding could raise all sorts of interesting issues with potential impacts on other prop- erties in areas. redevelopment Kev issue The central issue in this particular case appears to be whether, under the Utah Neighborhood Development Act which became law in 19o9. a redevelopment a gene v can condemn a property that isn't blighted. even though -- the surrounding blighted. area Is Redevelopment agencies, by the way. arc supposed to redeclop areas in the interest of "public peace, health, sale!) and welfare. whatever that means, in which and the areas their actiitics take place are supposed to be blighted. The agency has authority to condemn properties within the redevelopment area tU.C.A. Crucial to resolution of the issue is one paragraph in the law. It reads: Without the consent of an ow ner, an agency shall not acquire any real property on which an existing building is to be continued on its present site and in its present form and use unless such building tails or refuses to agree to participate ment plan. the redevelop(ll.C.A. in 11-19-- .11). What does that mean? Well. Robert S. Campbell, attorney for the Ziniks, told the Enterprise it means the owner is entitled to meet the conditions which the Redevelopment Agency sets as a standard of conduct for that which would eliminate area If the owner the blight." remedies whatever is causing the blight, the Redevelopment Agency is not entitled to take the property away. Campbell said. William Oswald, attorney for the Salt lake Redevelopment Agency, looked at it another way. Enforcement of building codes and the like are not the function of a re- development agency, he said. Redevelopment is. Campbell explained that Utah's Neighborhood Development Act was copied al- Continued on page 20 requires structural alteration, improvement, modernization or rehabilitation, or the site or lot on which the building is situated requires modification in size, shape or use or it is necessary to impose upon such nr .pert v .;nv ! the smn- da rd s. restrictions and controls of the plan and the owner Nuclear plants necessary in future say UP&L officials Nuclear power may be explosive politically, but Utah Power and Light officials see it as a safe and necessary way to generate elcctricitv bv the 199()s. Necessary because the coal U.P.A.L. relics so heavily on now may not always be available or economical to use. Val Finlay son, U.P.&L. director of research and development. has listed three major reasons for utilizing controversial nuclear breeder reactors in the future. Presently. 93 percent of the utility's energy is produced by coal-fire- d plants. That's a dangerous situation to be in. Finlayson said, because in litres of crisis, such as a strike or other civil disturbance, one particular energy source could be shut down. Energy production, he believes, would be better if diversified. Coal questionable Another reason, according to Finalyson. is that Utah's coal resources are somewhat questionable. There may be a lot of it now, but 90 percent of it is committed and the rest is in small bodies uneconomic to mine. U.P.&L. is in the process of applying for rights to coal on federal land but the government. through regulation and delays, could drive prices sky high, he claimed. That, apparently, is what has happened to geothermal resources. According to Finlayson, Phillips Petroleum Co. has been able to do only one year's worth of work on land leased near Roosevelt. Utah, over a three-yea- r period of such things as because work statements and required environmental analyses. The result, he said, is that geothermal power has become uneconomic. Continued on page 19 JACK OLSEN Utah Taxpayers Assoc. Taxpayers chief opposes new tax A representative of 1,000 Utah businesses is "so opposed to a city income tax he just couldn't name all the ways." But the executive. Jack Olson, of the Utah Taxpayers Association, managed to name a few for the En- terprise. Olson first disputed the need for the money which city commissioner Jennings Phillips (apparently backed by other commissioners) prof poses to raise through a of one percent to one percent payroll tax on wages earned within city limits. Phillips believes the tax would yield approximately $8 million after collection costs are subtracted. one-hal- Olson told the Enterprise city revenues have been grossly underestimated by as much as $500,000 to $1 million in sales tax and $400,000 in property tax. That, added to almost $3 million in unappropriated surplus city funds plus new income to be generated next year when a state property tax reappraisal program brings assessed valuations up to 20 percent of fair market value, should provide the city with all the money it needs, he said. Olson also docs not believe in any promises of reducing one kind of tax when another kind is imposed. Continued on puge It BBS VOLUME 7 NUMBER 12 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1977 UTAH EDITION 50 CENTS |