NORTH SALT LAKE, Utah – The North Salt Lake City Council approved a plan Thursday night aimed at stabilizing the area where a landslide happened last August.
This is the second plan in two months, as the first plan got scrapped after one property owner bowed out of the plan.
So the second plan, approved Thursday, completely excludes that owner, working around the Eagle Point Tennis Club.
“The problem was we had conceptual agreements but we never could pin down a final agreement with the tennis court,” said Barry Edwards, the City Manager for North Salt Lake.
So now, instead of building a massive retaining wall which would have cut through part of the property of the tennis club, North Salt Cake plans to build around it.
“It’s a modified construction plan we're presenting,” Edwards said.
Proponents of the plan said it will secure the hillside that slipped last August, destroying a home.
In addition to the wall, the hillside will be reshaped and vegetation replanted. The project will cost close to $2 million.
The city, along with developer Sky Properties and two gas companies which have pipelines in the area, will pick up the tab.
The tennis club bowed out of the plan because it would have limited their ability to sue the city or the developer in the future for their losses.
“The day before the slide, the city and the developer both came in and said they thought that something was going to happen and if they could use my property as a staging area they would put me back exactly the way I was and they would take full responsibility for the hill and fix the whole hill,” said Brad Feriera, owner of Eagle Ridge Tennis Club. “And then the next day the landslide comes down, and then suddenly it becomes an act of God and it’s got nothing to do with them taking responsibility for the hill anymore.”
Edwards said: “We've got good agreements with all the other parties involved, Kern River, Questar, the developer, the other property owners--so we're confident this is a good way to start.”
The owner of the tennis club is suing both the city and the property developer in this area, and there are lawsuits involving other property owners here as well. Those issues have yet to play out in court, but the city says work can now begin to repair the hillside.
City officials said the contractor has already been selected and work will get underway in less than weeks.
