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BOUNTIFUL — After public outcry that included a petition and legal action, Bountiful leaders have decided to pull the plug on a proposal to build a new $13 million city hall.
The motion to formally cancel the project passed unanimously at a City Council meeting Tuesday evening and was met with applause.
Mayor Randy Lewis and city leaders had announced Monday that they plan to reverse an earlier stance of refusing to rethink the project in spite of stiff resistance from many residents.
The pivot came after residents organized a petition drive that gathered over 4,000 signatures demanding that the proposal be put before voters. The informal residents' group, Better Bountiful, also filed legal action in 2nd District Court, hoping to compel the city to seek approval by referendum.
Bountiful resident Dean Collinwood, a member of Better Bountiful and one of five plaintiffs in the lawsuit, expressed relief Tuesday about the city's change of heart.
"I'm pleased city leaders listened to the people," Collinwood said after the meeting.
He declined earlier Tuesday to gloat about his group's apparent success in getting the project canceled.
"From the start, this has been about giving Bountiful voters — who are engaged and intelligent people — the chance to weigh in on this project," Collinwood said. "We believe the City Council and our mayor had the best of intentions when they proposed the original idea. Our effort was not a personal one, but a policy one."
Council members each gave brief remarks about their reasoning behind ultimately putting a stop to the plan for a new city hall. Though the group maintained that it would have been a valuable component of the city's downtown, they said the issue was so hotly contested that it at times threatened to negatively impact the quality of public discourse between residents and city officials.
"I've been very supportive in this project. I loved where we were going with this," said Mayor Randy Lewis.
But ultimately, Lewis said, the issue was deeply divisive to the point where he decided "the people of Bountiful are more important than a building."
Councilman John Knight asked those who opposed the facility to take a new tone with the City Council now that the decision to cancel it has been made. He took issue with the tenor of the opposition to the building, which he said was "hijacked by a few Bountiful residents."
"It's my deepest desire that we as a city government, and that the residents of Bountiful come, together and rebuild communication and trust in (light of) gross misrepresentations of our intentions to bring economic development to downtown," he said.
The original plan, announced last October, called for the demolition of the historic Stoker Elementary School building at 75 E. 200 South and reclamation of a nearby soccer field to accommodate the new city hall and a public plaza. Residents packed public meetings about the proposed plans, decrying lack of public input and a budget that was out of scale with the community.
While city officials maintained their support of moving forward with the plan, the conflict came to a head late last month when the council was presented with the petition — and rejected it.
Tuesday's decision by the council will not completely lay the issue to rest.
Bountiful City Manager Gary Hill said the contract called for construction of both the new city hall and a public plaza. The council action Tuesday evening kept the $3.5 million plaza proposal in place, but formally requested additional public input on the issue.
Following the meeting, Collinwood said opponents are still weighing options as the group's lawsuit also specifically opposes the building of a public plaza without a vote from residents.
"If the city plaza is not put up for a (referendum), we will really need to think about whether we want to move forward with the lawsuit," Collinwood said.
