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RIVERDALE — Homebuilders Hugh Parke and Dennis Peters stood at the podium in stunned silence, listening to the Riverdale City Council, one by one, deny their request to rezone a vacant 4-acre lot in January 2023 for a new housing development.
The reason given for the motion — "so that we can move forward with our lives" — was proposed by Councilwoman Anne Hansen, the culmination of a series of tense meetings between developers, engineers and the council.
A long-awaited zoning approval was complicated by the fact that a councilman and Mayor Braden Mitchell lived in the bordering housing development, Riverglen. As private citizens, they had spoken out against a new development, and public records requests show they had texted neighbors to do the same.
The council dismissed engineering reports showing that building on the property would have no impact, and would likely improve the flooding and drainage issues that the area has experienced in the past. Some voting members relied on accusations of "illegal dirt" to quash the rezone, citing decades-old cease and desist letters that have either been lost to time, or never existed.
The city had also previously asked the owners if they would donate that land to the city for a park, but the owners declined.
"This 100% seemed personally motivated that the City Council was denying it," Cam Preston, an engineer involved with the project, told KSL.com.
The property owners, social worker James Purin and his wife Julie, say the process has been devastating financially and emotionally.
"If three of the members are never going to vote to rezone it, let's quit prolonging it and let's just deny it," Hansen said, to prompt a decision. The motion carried 4-1, with Hansen as the only "nay."
Property value worries
Today, that lot along Parker Drive sits empty, besides the hay grass that keeps a mound of topsoil from blowing away, a split-rail fence, an old tarp-covered truck. The hum of I-15 fades away toward the back of the property, which connects to a popular walking trail winding along the Weber River.
Peters, a third-generation homebuilder who died in January, and his business partner Parke, were under contract for the property. Their purchase was contingent upon the zoning approval that would allow them to build a continuation of the adjacent Riverglen housing subdivision — a quiet and bright neighborhood, consisting of modern homes priced around half a million, though they were sold for much less when newly built in the 2000s.
"We like what you guys build, we do, if that means anything," said Councilman Steve Hilton at the January meeting. Hilton lived in Riverglen, and his property bordered the proposed development, until his death in December 2023.
Parke responded: "Just not in your backyard."
"That's not fair," Hilton said.
"Of course that's fair," Peters shot back, "You have said 'we' all night long, which means that you have collectively decided before we got here."
In a May 2022 Planning Commission meeting, both Hilton and the mayor attended as private citizens to oppose zoning changes related to this lot. Amy Spiers, the vice chairwoman of the planning commission, also lives in Riverglen, and had been a vocal opponent.
Spiers, worried about the value of her home, asked Parke what he planned to price the new homes at. "Affordability right now is one of the main things that we're dealing with," Parke said, guessing the houses would go for between $450,000 and $500,000.
"That's going to crush us," Spiers said. The rezone was tabled until a meeting in June, where it passed narrowly, 4-3, and then went to the City Council.
In a July 2022 City Council meeting dealing with that rezone recommendation, Hilton also admitted to being worried the new building would decrease his property value, along with his neighbors.
Peters pushed Hilton about the financial conflict, but the man did not recuse himself from voting. Steve Brooks, city administrator and city attorney, affirmed there was "no personal financial interest" at the July meeting.
Text messages obtained through public records requests show Mitchell, the mayor, telling neighbors the development is "going to hurt our property values," spreading concern about potential flooding issues he believed the development could cause, while "encouraging all the neighbors to go" participate in public comment.
Mitchell told KSL.com this week he does not have any concerns about property values being affected by new building. "I'm a big property rights guy; I would love to see them be able to do something with their property," he said.
The property had been under contract twice before Parke and Dennis, but the deal fell through once prospective buyers spoke to the city, according to the Purins, who own the property.
Real estate agent Shad Selmos had a conversation with former community development director Michael Eggett in 2019. He told KSL.com what he told the Purins five years ago: "They do not want this property to be developed and tried their hardest to turn us off of it."
Eggett, who is now the community development director for Centerville, did not respond to requests for comment.
'Illegal dirt'
James and Julie Purin bought the land in 2004, and for the next three years, trucked occasional fill dirt onto portions of the lot in preparation for development.
They say their positive relationship with Riverdale officials took a turn for the worse in 2007, when they were approached and asked to donate their property as a park. The couple declined to donate the land, instead offering to sell it to the city. But they said no offer was ever made.
In the summer of 2015, more fill dirt was brought onto the property, according to receipts from Staker Parsons. James Purin purchased the dirt, which was part of a project at McKay-Dee Hospital.
James Purin said he didn't know at the time, however, that the content of the dirt must be monitored when a load is dumped, and the fill must be properly compacted if it is to be built on.
After learning of the fill being trucked in, the city of Riverdale requested a stormwater pollution prevention plan to protect the river from any runoff, James Purin said.
The Purins paid thousands for that plan to be completed, reciepts show, and after complying, continued to truck fill dirt onto the property, until they received a letter of concern from the city, obtained through public records request, which claimed historic wetlands may be impacted by the large amount of soil.
All work on the property stopped in 2015, according to the owners, with the exception of some seeding done to prevent erosion of the fill dirt, and the maintenance of the weeds for fire setbacks.
On public record over the course of multiple meetings, Brooks, Mitchell, and Eggett told council members that the city had issued multiple cease and desist letters to the Purins.
In one meeting, Mitchell said denial of the rezone "is our only recourse" to punish the property owners for allegedly dumping fill dirt illegally on the site almost a decade earlier.
Across three separate City Council meetings, the men said the owners of the property ignored the letters and continued to dump fill dirt, but the city never prosecuted, calling it "illegal fill" throughout the zoning discussions.
"Emotionally — and emotionally counts with the council — emotionally it's a flagrant disregard of the will of the city," said Hilton, who lived in Riverglen, and died unexpectedly in December 2023.
Councilman Bart Stevens had "a lot of concern about the illegal fill," and indicated at two separate meetings that his vote would be contingent upon the property owners "taking action."
"You expect us to go spend hundreds of thousands of dollars based upon the possibility of getting an approval?" asked Parke.
When KSL.com spoke with Stevens, the councilman vehemently denied asking the developers to spend any money, though he admitted to asking developers to remove the dirt. Stevens called any insinuation of requesting money be spent "prejudice, bigotry and bias," before abruptly ending the interview.
"We warned them and warned them and warned them, but they just kept doing it," Brooks told KSL.com, speaking about the Purins trucking in fill dirt. "We eventually told them any future development would be held up because of that."
City officials have no record of those letters, however. A public records request did not return any official cease and desist letters. Stevens and Mitchell told KSL.com they had never physically seen the letters.
The Purins contend they halted the dirt drops as soon as the city expressed concern.
Brooks said his predecessor Randy Daily "told us he had issued a number of cease and desist letters," and "that's what we relied on." Mitchell also said he had never seen the letters and was relying on second hand information.
He said he didn't know if the documents existed anymore, but current development director Brandon Cooper pulled up their file, and told KSL.com, "I have never seen a cease and desist letter for that project."
Flooding concern discrepancies
Riverglen, where Mitchell still resides, was mistakenly built below the 100-year flood plain, the design standard used statewide, according to engineer Preston, with Ensign Engineering.
"Several times over the years we've seen the area flood," Mitchell told KSL.com. "The neighborhood I live in ... was all built according to what the engineers wanted and the city wanted, and we had terrible flooding in the homes that backed up through the land drain, because it wasn't engineered correctly."
Preston wrote a report for the proposed development, finding that building on the new property would likely improve drainage on surrounding lots, and would allow new houses to sit above the flood plain.
City engineer Todd Freeman concurred with the evaluation in January 2023. "I don't believe that this subdivision will impact or change the existing flood concerns at the Riverglen subdivision as long as the final design is completed correctly," Freeman wrote about a future development, in an email obtained through a public records request.
Builders also had a geotechnical report, along with letters from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Army Corps of Engineers mitigating wetland impacts and flood plain issues.
But the council was less confident about the positive recommendations.
Despite the council not having read these letters at the time of the meeting, Hilton called the underlying studies "flawed," and the council refused to second a motion tabling the discussion until the documents had been read.
"With my own eyes I see the water flowing, I know exactly where it is. … The FEMA stuff and the flood plain stuff does not reflect that," he said.
Councilman Alan Arnold, Stevens and Hilton all argued that the lot would hold water that otherwise would flow into the Riverglen development during a flood. Preston said that was wrong, and the area, in a flood event described, would be full of water in a matter of seconds.
"The engineering report that was used to do the (Ensign Engineering report) is wrong," Arnold said at the January 2023 meeting. Speaking about Preston, he said, "I think it's great that he's been to school and all that kind of stuff, but I've walked in the water."
Preston told KSL.com, "I was so offended by the way I was treated and the way they twisted the report I sent, I actually wrote the City Council a letter on my own time."
In the letter, Preston wrote, "Throughout my professional career, I have been to many controversial, emotional and personal public meetings throughout Davis and Weber County, but in none of those meetings have I been so discredited and disrespected as I was in your chambers."
"I didn't get a single response from any of them," he said.
"Engineers can make mistakes," Mitchell told KSL.com. "It's hard to say what's gonna happen when we've seen the flooding with our own eyes."
'A personal issue'?
After the rezone was denied, the builders were released from contract. Parke sent an email to the Purins saying, "The City Council is not being truthful in their arguments for not approving this development. We believe that they have personal interests clouding their judgment because this is right in the backyard of one of the council members and the mayor."
Lori Fleming, a former planning commission member and real estate agent in Riverdale, said at a a September 2022 meeting, "I've watched you guys approve developments, and I've never seen you guys make these guys jump through hoops like you have these guys."
At a time when housing supply is extremely limited, Fleming argued that the developer has done everything the council asked. "I don't know if this is a personal issue or what," she said.
The Purins filed a lawsuit against the city and some council members, alleging the rezone denial was improper, but it was dismissed on procedural grounds.
"I can't even express how much emotional damage this has created for us, as well as financial," James Purin said. "Now I work 60 hours a week trying to recover from this damage financially."
They reached out to the state auditor, property rights ombudsman, the state ethics committee, but no one could help.
"The ability of them to be so dishonest," said Julie Purin, "and there's nobody to hold them accountable — nobody."
Correction: An earlier version incorrectly said the property was adjacent to I-80 instead of I-15.
