STACY JOHNSON - North County Staff | Posted: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 11:00 pm
Citing rising property taxes in the area, the Lindon City Council voted Tuesday night to remove a bond for a recreation center from the ballot.
"The property taxes in the area have gone up tremendously," said Ott Dameron, Lindon City Administrator. "Some people saw increases from $200 to $600."
The Lindon City Council voted earlier this summer to put the bond on the ballot.
The plan is now to build an aquatics center. The city will postpone the recreation center components of the facility until it's more prepared to pay for the construction.
"The original plan was to do the construction in phases, but we thought that with the general obligation bond, we could build it all at once to save on construction costs that would rise in the future," said City Councilman Bruce Carpenter.
The general obligation bond would have allowed the city to build an aquatics and recreation facility with amenities like a senior center and a walking/jogging track.
City officials said that their budget will allow for the construction of the aquatics center only, using a sales tax bond to finance it.
It could include a lap pool, family play pool, hot tub and slide.
"The exact features would be determined in a feasibility study, where we would hold public meetings to see what features they want in the aquatics center," Dameron said.
Cost estimates for the scaled down version of the center are anywhere between $4.7 million and $10 million.
City officials say with more development along the 700 North corridor, Lindon's sales tax base will increase, and they could possibly finish the facility within five to 10 years.
Lindon has been considering building a recreation center since 2002, and has completed surveys this year that said that 57 percent of those responding were in favor of the fitness center.
"This is a more prudent approach to take," said Mayor Jim Dain. "We did not want to unduly burden the taxpayers at a time when the property tax bill has already taken a much larger bite of the residents' income."
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page C1.