"If you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it."
John Pierpont Morgan
American Financier & Banker
1837-1913
"There's a sucker born every minute...and two to take 'em."
Phineas Taylor Barnum
Godfreyesque American Showman
1810-1891
Perhaps we're a bit old-fashioned here at Weber County Forum. Springing from a generation of sensible Americans who always check the water's depth before we dive in head-first, we have always approached real property transactions in a fairly standard time-honored sequence.
If we wish to sell a parcel of property, we at least make some effort to ascertain such property's value before we put it on the market.
In those instances where we have a seemingly eager prospective buyer on hand, we don't alter our legal position in any manner until we at least have a firm offer on the table. And obtaining reliable appraisals or comparative market analyses is of course a fundamental prerequisite to entering into the bargaining process in such instances -- something that should happen early in the game. To do otherwise is imprudent and reckless, we believe. If we had a real estate broker or lawyer who might recommend that we sign any binding preliminary agreements before we had obtained reliable market data and arrived at at least a general agreement as to purchase price and and other essential performance terms, we'd also be looking into that individual's malpractice insurance coverage, or begin shopping for a new legal representative altogether.
We are therefore absolutely mystified by the conduct of some Emerald City elected officials and bureaucrats, who seem to be rushing headlong into a wholesale modification of our planning and zoning rules in connection with the Peterson Landgrab Matter. Absent at least some general and realistic idea of purchase price and terms, we fail to understand why we are doing anything at all to facilitate this factually-murky proposed transaction.
The Emerald City Planning Commission nevertheless held a work-session last night, with three troubling items on the agenda:
- Modification of the city's Sensitive Overlay Ordinance.
- Enactment of a new Multiple Use Development Ordinance.
- Modification of the now-ongoing Mt. Ogden Community Plan process.
In this connection we have plucked a concise report of last night's meeting from one of our lower comments sections. We link board-regular Curmudgeon's eyewitness narrative here, for our gentle readers' attention.
Most troubling to us is the apparent intention, on the part of some of our elected and appointed public servants, to bind the citizens of Emerald City into a murky "pre-development agreement," even prior to the presentation of any purchase offer -- and in the complete absence of any appraisal data.
We will attempt today to obtain and link the full-text versions of all proposed ordinance and planning process changes; and will hopefully publish an early update here.
In the meantime though, please regard this article as a "heads-up." We have a city administration that's notorious for backroom dealing and chicanery; and we believe we need to watch these people like hawks. But then we're "old-school," as we said.
The floor is open for discussion.
