City officials are making their list and checking it twice in hopes of getting that golf course they've always wanted for Christmas.
But they'll have to hurry. They have only 25 days before the latest developer interested in building an apartment complex on the city's west side needs a firm commitment from the City Council.At a council work session Tuesday, representatives of Security Capital Pacific Trust said they need to know by Dec. 19 if the city will let them build a 450-unit apartment complex on 28 acres near 9500 South and 800 West. If so, the developers would give the city the surrounding 156 acres so it can build Sandy's first public golf course.
Then the city would have to figure out how to build an $8 million golf course for less than $6 million, which it would need to do if the course is to be profitable within its first 10 years of operation."Some of the people who own the property say they aren't going to sell if the option runs out (in January)," Dan Simons, the city's economic development coordinator, told the council.
The city hopes Security Capital Pacific Trust, which owns and manages 42,000 apartment units across the country, is the last of a long line of developers who have paraded through City Hall in recent years with designs on the undeveloped property. Each has been anxious to build condominiums or apartments but not as excited about the golf course, which the city has tried to include in the package.
Mayor Tom Dolan said Security Capital Pacific is the first developer that has offered to give the land to the city. Others have wanted to sell it to the city or have offered to build the golf course themselves after completing the residential complex.
By donating the property, the developer would give the city a fighting chance to build a golf course that could be profitable within a few years, Dolan said. Estimates given to the city by Salt Lake County indicate the course would cost $8 million and would run a deficit of about $300,000 per year for about the first 10 years of its life.
But Dolan told the City Council that golf-course operators he has spoken with say the 18-hole course can be built for a lot less, perhaps as little as $5 million. And if the course can't be built for around $6 million, Dolan said, the city would have the option of turning the site into a park.
The Salt Lake County Commission has in the past expressed its willingness to help the city fund the course, an option Councilman George McNeill encouraged the city to pursue.
"The county still has pockets with a little depth left in them," said McNeill, suggesting the county might contribute the $1 million to $2 million that would make the course affordable.
Three residents of the Burgundy Street Garden subdivision, east of the proposed golf course site, expressed concern about the increased traffic the apartment complex would dump onto 9000 South. They said three serious accidents have occurred at the intersection of 700 West and 9000 South recently, including one involving subdivision resident Byron Tucker, who attended Tuesday's meeting.
"Everybody there is concerned about the traffic," said Randy Crane, who lives on Burgundy Street. "We want the golf course (but) we would prefer to see single-family homes or condos, something somebody has ownership in. An apartment complex is not always guaranteed to be maintained."
The developers presented their proposed apartment complex as an "upscale" development that would attract mostly an older crowd. The golf course would be an amenity that would help keep turnover to a minimum, they said.
Several councilmen said the traffic issue would be looked at closely before any approvals are given, but no one opposed the development as proposed.
"This has been an eyesore for years and years and years," Councilman Dennis Tenney said of the site. "I'm a firm `yes.' "
The council gave an informal go-ahead to the project, asking the city's staff to continue working with the developers to iron out an agreement. The matter is to be discussed in more detail at City Council meetings in the near future.