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Show City Developer Settle Long Standing Legal Battle A settlement in the longstanding long-standing legal battle between bet-ween the city and developer Elwood Nielsen was finally reached at last Thursday's regular meeting of the City Council. Councilmen approved the settlement over two weeks ago but reaffirmed the agreement last Thursday after some language changes were completed. passed solely to preclude Nielsen's development. Secondly, she said the city's case against' Neilsen may have been damaged because the matter was unacted upon for so many years. Thirdly, the city manager said negotiators feared an eventual court ruling that could permit some of the Masonic Hill property to be developed under the 1968 zoning ordinance which was and are not necessarily found in the city's land management manage-ment code. In the draw east of the Coalition Building, Nielsen will be allowed 144 condominium condomi-nium units in six buildings. The buildings will be five stories high, one story over that allowed in the code. Loble said the exception was made to reduce the visual impact of the deve-, deve-, lopment. Nielsen will also be i allowed to develop 88 single family lots and 48 condominium condomi-nium units on top of the hill under RD (residential development) devel-opment) zoning requirements. require-ments. The property is presently zoned estate which is much more restrictive. A third parcel near Utah Coal and Lumber will be allowed to develop under HCB (historic commercial business) busi-ness) guidelines. The settlement states the residential developments will not come under the authority of the Planning Commission but will rather be administered by the building director, city manager mana-ger and one member of the city council. Mayor Jack Green said he was not particularly pleased with excluding the Planning Commission from authority over the projects, but added "in a settlement you have to give and take". Nielsen s application to develop his substantial Masonic Mas-onic Hill property has been on file with the Planning Commission and substantially substantial-ly unacted upon since 1972. In 1974, Nielsen began building an access road to his property. The city at the time " filed suit to halt the road construction, claiming Niel-i sen was in violation of a newly-enacted grading ordinance. ordi-nance. Nielsen subsequently filed a counter claim charging charg-ing the city with taking away his right to use his property. He eventually claimed damages dam-ages of $6 million. The two suits were in limbo until last fall when Nielsen began to press the issue. The city has been negotiating with Nielsen since. According to City Manager Mana-ger Arlene Loble, the city . had several reasons for settling with Nielsen out of court rather than continuing to refuse his development plans. There is evidence that Nielsen was not treated completely equitably over the years, she said, indicating indicat-ing that the "grading ordinance" ordi-nance" may have been in force when Nielsen first made application. According to Loble, thai v would have resulted in a density "much, much" greater than that which is now allowed. Loble said the city feared the needed new state highway could have been substantially delayed because Nielsen currently controls several key pieces to the roads' right-of-way. Because Be-cause of federal highway funding cutbacks, Loble said Nielsen's property may not be able to be purchased for the road for "years." Under terms of the settlement, settle-ment, Nielsen has agreed to give the city the key right-of-way parcels plus additional property on the north face of Masonic Hill. Nielsen claims the value of the "gift" is in excess of $4 million. In exchange for the property, proper-ty, Nielsen will be allowed to develop certain Masonic Hill parcels. The constraints under which he will be allowed to build are set forth in the settlement agreement |
