BRIGHTON — The town of Brighton decided Monday afternoon to end an agreement to purchase the Silver Fork Lodge, which is owned by Mayor Danial Knopp.

Silver Fork Lodge was built in the 1850s, and the original wood beams from the Cardiff Fork Mine still reside in the building. The lodge is popular among canyon locals and visitors in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

Knopp has owned the lodge since 1993 and decided last year to sell it as he plans to downsize and retire, members of the Town Council said. The mayor has recused himself from all town discussions about the purchase, including Monday's meeting.

In May, the Town Council entered into a right of first refusal purchase agreement for the lodge, putting $100,000 down for the town to have priority on purchasing the property and building for $4.5 million after one year if no other higher offers were given. The agreement stipulated the town had 120 days to do "material due diligence," and the town could decide to back out of the agreement if it deems it necessary.

At that May meeting, Town Council members said they wanted Brighton to buy the lodge to preserve canyon history and because it is a community gathering spot in a central location with parking.

Town residents, however, were split on the purchase. Many voiced the need for more information on what the building's future would look like; others questioned why the money couldn't be used for alternative things, and several expressed concern for the potential conflict of interest with the mayor being the seller.

The 120-day due diligence deadline — ending on Sept. 20 — was extended to Tuesday to allow for an appraisal on the property to be finished. The Town Council received the appraisal on Oct. 8 and called for a special meeting on Monday to discuss whether to move forward with the purchase agreement before Tuesday's deadline.

In a unanimous vote, the Town Council chose to terminate the purchase agreement.

Public feedback

Monday's meeting started out rocky with several negative comments, including complaints of a meeting being held on a federal holiday — Columbus Day — with only two days' notice and the public comment period being held prior to the presentation.

"If you guys follow suit with this thing, I'm scared to death what you guys might come up with later," Kurt Slaughter said, adding he doesn't think the council is representing the majority of residents' opinions.

Resident Sarah Langridge said she thinks the town should prioritize other issues before the lodge, such as fixing transportation and traffic problems.

"Brighton is a little town, and you're trying to jump into the big boy arena, and it's not big boy time yet," Langridge said.

Jackson Jones expressed concern about the mayor profiting from the purchase agreement, even though he was recusing himself from meetings and discussions. He suggested the town focus on other ways to preserve the building rather than buying it.

"The council has within its power an opportunity to preserve the building by passing restrictive zoning or restrictive covenants and letting someone else buy it. You don't have to buy the building in order to preserve it," he said.

Town Council responds

Councilman Keith Zuspan responded to these comments, saying the reason for the meeting happening on such short notice was that the town didn't receive the appraisal until last week. Then the meeting was scheduled for a time when all council members could meet prior to the deadline, which ended up being Monday at 1:30 p.m.

Zuspan explained the council has been doing its due diligence: talking to other cities who have bought property to produce city profit, hiring an appraiser to look at the lodge's compliance with building codes and its value, finding out what impact change of use/occupancy would make, and calculating costs of upgrading the facility for future use.

Related:

Town of Brighton makes first step in potential purchase of 'icon' Silver Fork Lodge

The town of Brighton took a first step Tuesday in potentially purchasing the well-loved Silver Fork Lodge.

Councilwoman Carolyn Keigley said the town didn't have the knowledge of the due diligence until now to know if it was worth it to take advantage of the purchase agreement. She said the town could have done the process better, but the council did its best on digging into the issue.

"Once we got the appraisal, once we got all of the other due diligence stuff, it was like this is a clear: 'No, we do not want to purchase this property,'" she said.

Councilwoman Lise Brunhart thanked everyone at the meeting for caring about the issue and expressing their thoughts. Looking at the situation overall, knowing public opinion was majority against it, and the change of occupancy codes "being so prohibitive" in making it a community building like the town wanted, there were too many "negative influences" towards purchasing, she said.

"I realize the optics have been not ideal for us purchasing this, and I want to say I'm sorry it didn't look good. But the opportunity did look good for us, for the town," she said. "If we didn't have so many troubles to update it, and expenses to update it, it could've been a wonderful community space."

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