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Alex Cabrero ReportingThe city of Bluffdale just lost a huge chunk of land.
A judge ruled today some property owners could take their land and leave the city. Now the big question is: will that land become part of another city? The judge's decision makes that land part of Salt Lake County. If the land owners get their way, it will be annexed by Herriman.
The landowners say they've had it with Bluffdale and wanted to leave, so they took their case to court and won.
Claudia Anderson, Mayor of Bluffdale: "It hurts us bad. It hurts us really bad. It's the most beautiful place that we have, and now it may be gone. We can't afford that."
Bluffdale mayor, Claudia Anderson, is talking about almost seven square miles of open land in the western part of her city.
Mayor Claudia Anderson: "I never knew what $40-billion would buy, but maybe this is it."
Those who own the land say they've wanted to develop it for the past 13 years, but Bluffdale never allowed them to. Mayor Anderson has only been mayor for two months and was hoping to avoid a court case.
Mayor Claudia Anderson: "We hope they'll come back and compromise. We want our city to stay intact."
But that may now be too late. Third district judge Anthony Quinn ruled today that property owners could secede their land from Bluffdale and become part of Salt Lake County.
Jim Sorenson, Developer: "This was really the last alternative for us."
Developer Jim Sorenson is President of group of owners of the land leaving Bluffdale. He's planning to continue his Rosecrest development, currently in Herriman, to the former Bluffdale land. That's not all. He's also going to ask the land to be annexed into Herriman. Anderson isn't happy about it at all.
Mayor Claudia Anderson: "I'm really sad that we, that the judge ruled against us. But we're going to take it to the supreme court."
There is a lot of open space there you think would be perfect for development. But if that happens, Bluffdale City say, it should be their developments in their city, on their terms.
Mayor Claudia Anderson: "I don't think it's a done deal at all. I think we need a new judge to take a new, fresh look at it."
Jim Sorenson: "The city is needlessly wasting taxpayer money, which is unfortunate."
Bluffdale isn't giving up the land so easily though.
Mayor Claudia Anderson: "We only lost the battle, we haven't lost the war."
All this land becoming part of Salt Lake County was about one-third of Bluffdale City's overall land, so it's a huge chunk of the land.
