Mike Morgan, among 27 families and a Baptist church forced by city fathers to make way for a new park, was furious.
"I'm the h--- out of Ogden City. Ogden City can shove it . . . ," he yelled after the City Council voted 4-3 to demolish his renovated 105-year-old home for the $2.5 million park.The 27 families and the 150-member Second Baptist Church must make way for sandboxes, a soccer field and picnic areas at a 6-acre site just south of Washington High School.
Council members Adele Smith, Ken Alford, Rick Mayer and Glen Holley agreed the best site for the park in the Jefferson neighborhood is sandwiched between Washington High and 34th Street.
They voted for the site despite the recent recommendation by a citizens committee to build the new park at a nearby location. Three other proposed sites would require established businesses to relocate.
The Ogden School District owns about 2 acres of the land, valued at about $76,000. School board member Lynn Wood said the district would "trade ground for golf."
Wood said the board wants to form an agreement with the city to trade city commodities - like time on the city's golf course for high school teams - for the deed to the land. The new park also could serve as a playground for children if the high school is converted into an elementary school, he said.
Mayer said the school district's land-trade offer, coupled with fears that a displaced business would fail in a new location, pushed the decision.
"I like the opportunity with the school board. I don't like displacing people," Mayer said. "But businesses will either sink or swim, and I think we'd run a lot of businesses out of business (by relocating them)."
Federal laws require the city to find suitable homes for the displaced families and pay for moving them within a 50-mile radius.
Jim Kenyon, a city-hired relocation consultant, will work for the next six months to help move the families who will lose their homes. No businesses will have to move.
Todd Espinoza's family left the council chambers angry and in tears. After a year in the neighborhood, they will be forced to move.
"It is crazy to tear a house down to build a park," Espinoza said. "It is ludicrous. The park is supposed to be the community's. But what about families you chase away? They are no longer a part of that neighborhood."