The Stansbury Service Agency agreed Wednesday night to a land swap that would trade 6 acres of future park space for a 5-acre parcel, which would be the site of a possible recreation center.
Local developer Joe White presented an amendment to the agreement between the service agency and Ivory Homes, which would satisfy the open space requirement via the transfer. White said he has formed a non-profit with the intention of building and maintaining a recreation center on the parcel, including an indoor swimming pool and other amenities. In exchange, the amended agreement would allow Ivory Homes to build an additional 100 housing units.
Under the amended agreement, Ivory Homes would provide water rights or shares for the parcel. If Tooele County determines to use the property for a different purpose, the 5 acres would revert to the service agency to be used for a park.
White brought the same proposal before the Tooele County Commission during its Tuesday night meeting for comment. The commission isn’t expected to vote on the amended agreement until its Oct. 2 meeting.
An original concept plan for a recreation center included basketball courts, indoor soccer fields and batting cages, among other amenities, White said. To fund the recreation center, which has no estimated price tag yet, White said he was looking for possible partners or contributors, including the school district and service agency.
If the service agency contributed a monthly fee to the recreation center, it could provide a discount to its taxpayers, White suggested.
“We will serve families from Grantsville and Lake Point and outlying areas that aren’t in your service area,” he said. “So the people who are in your service area, because of the fee you’d be paying, would get a reduced family pass price.”
White said there are significant gaps in athletic recreation in the area, especially gym space. He also said he would like to include office space in the recreation center to rent to physical therapists or similar businesses.
“If you had 10,000 square feet of rental office space that were paying customers of the rec center, that would really go a long ways to help, too,” White said.
Board member Brenda Spearman said it’s likely the service agency would have to pay any contributions from its general fund and not impact fees from new development. Board chairman Neil Smart said the service agency is reworking its master plan and a recreation center is likely to be included in the long-range plans.
Tooele County School Board member Carol Jensen was at the meeting and said the school district is interested in a possible partnership with White due to the need for an indoor pool. Jensen said she was only speaking for herself, but believes the school board does not want to build its own pool.
“We don’t want to be in the swimming pool business,” she said. “We’re in the education business and we really shouldn’t probably build a swimming pool.”
Service agency board member Mike Johnson said even if the recreation center is not built, the service agency will get one 5-acre park, instead of 6 acres of smaller pocket parks throughout the community.
“If he wants to try to put a rec center out there, I don’t think the community loses anything,” Spearman said. “If we get a rec center, great. If we don’t, the property comes back to us and we make it work.”
On a motion by Spearman, the service agency approved the amendment, conditioned upon Johnson reviewing the attachments, including the water rights, and a signature from Smart. The vote was unanimous, aside from board member Cassandra Arnell, who was not present.