A panel of Davis County community leaders and higher education officials is evaluating a dozen sites for a potential community college.
The Davis Higher Education Center board plans to lobby the Legislature for money to buy an option on land for a college. The center, located at Weber State University's Layton extension office, coordinates classes offered by the state's three universities in the county.Layton officials have put forward six sites with the 100-acre minimum size and accessibility the board requires. Farmington has proposed four sites, Kaysville another and Centerville is touting a site for the potential college.
Some property owners may not know their land is being considered. The board's site committee closed its meetings to the press and public.
Layton Mayor James Layton said several of the Layton sites actually were proposed by the individual owners. But the city also listed some sites for consideration without notifying the landowners.
Committee member Sid Young said some other sites have been suggested since the filing deadline.
The committee decided Tuesday to ask mayors to approach the property owners, compile more information about each site and possibly discuss prices.
Committee members hope to narrow the list of sites in time to present a proposal to the Legislature in January, Young said. "The intent is to be unified on one site."
Board member Jean Madsen said the committee closed its meeting this week to the public and press so the owners who don't know their land is being considered can be notified before reading about it in the newspaper. Madsen said the committee is also concerned that publicizing the sites will boost the price of the land.
The committee discussed only the suitability of the sites and not negotiation strategy or the price of the land, Young said.
If that's true, the closure of the meeting is legally questionable, said Jeff Hunt, attorney for the Society of Professional Journalists.
The committee violated the Utah Open Meetings Act because the closed meeting was not posted 24 hours in advance and the committee did not vote to close the meeting in an open meeting, he said, adding, "To me, those (regulations) are just as important as what they talked about in the meeting."