OGDEN, Utah — Neighbors in Ogden have been rallying for months to save the green space that used to be Taylor Canyon Elementary School. The city is looking at buying the property to keep as a park, but there could be some hiccups along the way.
In 2022, the Ogden School District demolished Taylor Canyon Elementary School, and last fall, the district listed the property as surplus. As is the required process, Ogden City had first dibs at a chance to purchase the property. With all the public input to try to save the space, Ogden City agreed to look into buying the property in December.
WATCH: Ogden moves toward purchase of old Taylor Canyon school site to preserve green space
Last week, the city and the school board reached a deal for the city to buy 2.6 acres of the 4.2-acre property for around $950,000, pending an accurate appraisal. The school district will still keep the remaining 1.6 acres and might sell that to a developer to build single-family homes there.
This space means a lot to Chelsea Alexander. She is part of a group working to save it.
"It doesn’t matter where you live, you can use this asset from the city,” she said. She hopes it can be a community asset that everyone gets to use. “The best part about that is it’s an untapped playing field."
"I’m excited that we're going to be able to at least purchase some of the property,” said Ogden City Council member Kevin Lundell. “I was surprised to see that we weren’t purchasing all of it; that was my understanding that we've kicked this process off, and I’m a little bit disappointed, I must say.”
Ogden City Council has to approve the purchase before it’s a done deal because they have to move some funds around in next year's budget to make that happen. Currently, the mayor has allocated $700,000 to buy the park. The remaining part can come from unallotted funds and money set aside to acquire new parks.
"We are so worried that this may not pass city council,” said Alexander. “Even though there is a purchase agreement in place, I do understand that it all comes down to budget and numbers.”
At Tuesday’s work session meeting, some city council members are worried about the money to maintain it, and taking away from investing in other parks that need fixing.
"For park maintenance, improvement and use, the dollars that we would spend here could be better allocated to the park space we already have and make it more usable, and allow this particular neighborhood to grow with single-family housing,” said council member Dave Graf.
The council hasn’t decided yet, but we could know more in the next few weeks as the budget process continues.
"We're happy that compromises have been made and that they are still willing to purchase a portion of the property and the bigger portion to retain for the community,” said Alexander. “We're also a little bit frustrated that there wasn’t more transparency in the process for the community because we have been so involved from the beginning, and we feel like this just came out of left field and we are scrambling to figure out what to do next.”
