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Show Clyde: City should avoid r Bald Eagle landlock fight by KICK BROUGH Record staff writer "'-" ' The Park City Planning Commission Commis-sion tabled a decision last week on the Bald Eagle development in Deer Valley, saying the city has not provided pro-vided an answer on how to resolve a dispute between Deer Valley and the owners of adjacent property. The vote on Nov. 27 was 2-1 to table, with commissioners Ruth Gezelius and Paul Bickmore in favor, commissioner Randall Rogers against, and commissioners Ron Whaley and Steve Deckert abstaining. ab-staining. The commission was slated to take up the matter again at its Wednesday, Wednes-day, Dec. 4 meeting. The board requested re-quested that . city attorney Tom Clyde attend the meeting. But Clyde has said that he can do nothing to resolve the situation. The city will be sued by one party or the other, he said, regardless of the position posi-tion it takes. "There's nothing I can tell them I haven't already said. They want me to tell them they won't be sued, and I can't do that." The Bald Eagle project has been proposed for the east edge of the Silver Lake community of Deer Valley and would build upward ..of 240 units. The developers were seeking seek-ing Large Scale Master Plan-approval from the city. . When discussions began on the property this fall, an objection was raised by Walt Bishop, representing the Keith family, which owns property pro-perty east of the area. He said the Deer Valley project would effective- , ly landlock, or block, development pf(, the Keith property unless an ap jes, j is provided through Bald Eagle to the Keiths' land. He contended there is a precedent . for the city requiring a development with private roads, like Bald Eagle, to pay for an access road. Bishop cited the Pinnacle project as precedent. prece-dent. According to old planning commission com-mission minutes, the Pinnacle approval ap-proval in the early 1980s was tied to that developer paying in part for extension ex-tension of Mellow Mountain Road to the nearby Sunnyside subdivision. But city planners have pointed out differences in the Pinnacle case. Sunnyside, for instance, already had an access road, but that street, Sunnyside Sun-nyside Drive, presented problems because it was a steep uphill road with a sharp switchback, they said. The road required f rom.Pinnacle did not become part of its private road system. In Bald Eagle, it probably would be. Clyde pointed out another factor. He said the city's position is that the Keith property already is landlocked in its present status. Bishop disagrees, saying the property pro-perty can be accessed by a winding : road in Silver Lake that goes . through the Bald Eagle property. It has been used by many people to get to the land. "It's a two-track, but a car can get up there," he said. Clyde has suggested a compromise, com-promise, which is opposed by both parties. The attorney said Bald Eagle should leave a corridor of space that could be used for a possi- t ble extension into the Keith proper- i ties. Bishop said that solution "puts a gun to the head' of the Keiths." He contended that Deer Valley could ask an exorbitant amount of money for the access, then could offer to buy the Keith property for a low price on the grounds that the property proper-ty is worthless. "It's prime, developable land," he said. The city's compromise also is rejected re-jected by John Miiller, executive vice president of Deer Valley. "That would be condemnation," he said. Deer Valley is on firm legal ground in refusing to have a possible access forced on them. The company has supplied extensive research to the city. In similar cases in the past, Miiller said, the courts have ruled in favor of landowners in Deer Valley's : position. The situation also is polarized because the Keiths and Deer Valley have been unable to work out a private agreement for an access road. However, Bishop said he and Miiller have been arranging to talk this past week. At the planning commission meeting of last week, Gezelius said the city has not provided the board with a legally defensible posture on the Keith issue. "I feel we're being left in a very vulnerable position." That opinion was echoed by SBickmore, who said the Keith property pro-perty has always been a major issue at the commission meetings on Bald ' Eagle, yet the city has not addressed it. "If there's a good reason for us to say it's not our job (to address the issue) then give us a good reason." Commission chairman Brad Olch said, however, "You guys are stepp , ting out beyond what we are suppos:' edtodo." '.: Clyde told the Park Record that . since litigation was inevitable, he thought the city's position should be to stay with the status quo. : "I would just as soon be sued for doing . nothing than be sued for changing the world." |