Standard-Examiner: City Eyes $5M West Ogden Land Buy

A heartyWeber County Forum Tip O' the Hat to the Ogden City Council and Mayor Mike, for aggressively tackling the long-neglected blight problem on Ogden's West Side.

Via Standard-Examiner reporter Mitch Shaw:

The "post-apocalyptic" part of Ogden is getting a face lift. Here's the lede:

OGDEN — Though the original iteration of the concept sat dormant for 25 years, a project to develop a large portion of West Ogden is now gaining some major momentum.
Ogden City wants to purchase $5.9 million worth of land on just over 50 acres surrounding the vacant Ogden Exchange Building near the old stockyards in West Ogden. The five individual properties are sought by the city so they can begin a redevelopment project being called the Ogden Business Exchange.
The city is working with an undisclosed developer to build a light-manufacturing, industrial and business park in the area, which city officials say will spearhead growth in an area of Ogden that has been void of any major business activity for years.
The project is included in an economic development project area called the Trackline Economic Development Plan, which was adopted last year by the city council to assist with financing the OBE park.

Read Mr. Shaw's encouraging full story here:

• City eyes $5M West Ogden land buy

A hearty Weber County Forum Tip O' the Hat to the Ogden City Council and Mayor Mike, for aggressively tackling the long-neglected blight problem on Ogden's West Side.

Standard-Examiner: Major West Ogden Development Project Back On Track

Nice to see the Caldwell Administration and the City Council devoting their energy to reviving the worst-dilapidated Ogden area of them all

Uplifting Ogden City economic development story in this morning's Standard-Examiner, as S-E reporter Mitch Shaw reports on one of the outcomes of  last night's Ogden City Council meeting. It's out with the old and in with the new, Mr. Shaw reports, as the Ogden City Council replaces the moribund Golden Spike Redevelopment Area, which has been sitting idle for (and no, we are not making this up) 25 years, with the new and improved Trackline Economic Development Area Project.  Waiting in the wings to build out this 122 acre plot is the newly formed "Central Spur LK100, LLC, a company out of Corona Del Mar, Calif.," which expects "to  to develop a light-manufacturing, industrial and business park in the area," and to "tap" up to $13 million in tax increment dollars over the projected 20-year life of this project, Mr. Shaw duly reports:

• Major west Ogden development project back on track

Unlike certain other RDAs which Ogden City has attempted to finagle in the recent past, this West Ogden project would facially appear to fulfill the Utah statutory foundational definition of blight, wethinks, if only because that oft-neglected region of Ogden City might be reasonably considered for all intents and purposes as blighted per se, right?

"Typical" property a few blocks south

Nice to see the Caldwell Administration and the City Council devoting their energy to reviving the worst-dilapidated Ogden area of them all.

Added bonus? "No eminent domain [will be] involved,[and] any homes or businesses will be purchased by a developer from willing sellers," this morning's S-E story reports, which ought to be reassuring news for those libertarian-minded property rights advocates among us.

Looks like a win-win for everyone, right?

If not, why not?