Another Good Day For Ogden City

Seems it's another good day for Ogden. A Standard-Examiner article appeared today, after a long reporting lull, announcing that the City Council, acting as the Ogden City RDA, has agreed to sell a one-acre lot on the old mall-site to a Salt Lake developer. This developer plans to build out a six-story structure, which will include retail space, above-ground parking, and residential condominiums, among other things. Project cost will be borne entirely by the his company, apparently, without so much as a dime of RDA or City money being contributed to the project. This is definitely good news for Ogden City! You can read the whole story here.

Mayor Godfrey told us a while ago that developers were waiting in the wings, while the naysayers called him a liar. So far Mayor Godfrey's story checks out completely, and the process of building up the former mall property begins to unfold, while the naysayers are proven wrong yet again.

Meanwhile, there was another belated story about the naysayers, reported today by our faithful newspaper of record. As reported here first, about four days ago, the Std-Ex now tells us that the knight-errant, Don Quixote activist Mitch Moyes has gone to federal court for some kind of vague injunctive relief. According to the Std-Ex story, the complaint alleges that the voter list obtained from the Weber County clerk's office contained errors, that signed petitions were "stolen," and that documents relevant to the Recreation Center project were "intentionally witheld." Of course there's no allegation in the complaint that any of the named defendants were responsible for any ot these unalleged misdeeds. It sounds like a tough proof problem, even if it does get to a trial on the merits -- which it won't.

Strangely, the petitioners didn't even bother to submit their signed petitions by the deadline, which probably means they've waived their right to complain about any discrepancies in the numbers required to put the bonding to a public vote. Even more strangely, the petitioners seem to have no hearing date set for their request for an injunction. My guess is that the defendants' successful motion to dismiss will happen first.

As I said before in an earlier-posted article, it's a good idea to hire professionals to do professional jobs. These naysayers' complaint will be dismissed faster than you can say "frivolous lawsuit."