PROVO — A 67-year-old mistake haunts two sets of elected officials who want to reach a civil solution rather than engage each other in a city-sized civil war.
The Provo City Council and the Provo School Board of Education inherited an error made in November 1937, when their predecessors agreed the city would give up a strip of land where the district would open Joaquin Elementary School the following year.
Joaquin now is just two weeks from closing forever and the school board has been preparing to sell the land at 550 N. 600 East. In the process, however, attorneys discovered the strip that once was a city street never was properly deeded to the school district.
Since the two intra-city groups serve the same taxpayers, they're trying to take the high road and peacefully work out a land swap, which they discussed in a joint lunch meeting Thursday.
The city would trade the ancient street, which amounts to seven-tenths of an acre, to the school district for nine acres of undeveloped land west of I-15.
Even the proposed swap has an intramural flavor. The undeveloped land is on a site at about 1320 N. Geneva Road where the school district plans to build a new elementary school in the next five years. If the sides agree to the land deal, the city would develop the nine acres as a city park, but the area would still be used by the new school, City Councilman Dave Knecht said.
The district would benefit from surrendering the land because the city would pay for the development and maintenance of the park, Knecht said.
The deal isn't done, though, or easy for board members to swallow. One board member, Richard Sheffield, told the five city council members who attended Thursday's meeting that he thinks the school district's argument is stronger.
"The street was vacated," Sheffield said. "The intent was to give that land to the school district."
Both groups have treated the land since the 1938 opening of the school as school district property.
"As recently as 1992, documents indicate the city thought we owned the property," Sheffield said.
However, he said the school board wants to be fair.
"So you want to give us something for something you think is yours," City Councilman Paul Warner said to laughter from both sides.
"I think the city definitely has an argument," said Sheffield, who is an attorney. "The city has legal title of record. That really helps the city's argument in a lot of ways."
Council attorney Neil Lindberg called the situation "ticklish."
"Maybe we have the legal issues on our side and you have the equitable issues on your side," Lindberg said. "I don't know how a court would rule."
Knecht said some in the Joaquin neighborhood have suggested the school district could give seven-tenths of an acre on the old elementary school site to the city for a "pocket park," helping maintain some green space in the city center.
However, council members rejected that notion.
Council members said they believe park impact fees they expect to reap from new homes on the west side will be plowed back into park enhancements near Joaquin.
The Council voted 7-0 on May 3 to add the strip of land under Joaquin Elementary to a list of city surplus land ready for sale or trade. The elementary school was built for $125,000 and named for a Laguna Indian boy said to have guided the first Spanish explorers into Utah Valley on Sept. 23, 1776.
The board and the council discussed the best way to make the swap. The board angled for a solution to help it maximize the sale price of the Joaquin property. That might include asking the city council for a zoning change that would make the land more enticing to developers.
"If we can get a park on the west side and maximize the value on the property, that's a win for all of the taxpayers in the city," said school district superintendent Randy Merrill, who isn't an elected official.
"A win for the taxpayer has to be a win for all of us, and a win for the children of Provo."
E-mail: twalch@desnews.com