The 120-acre Lundin farm is near Wasatch Mountain State Park.
Utah Open Lands Executive Director Wendy Fischer said the nonprofit has worked for years to preserve the long-held family farm for future generations.
“It's been one of those projects that really speaks to the heart of how hard these decisions are, and especially when you don't have all family members in alignment,” she said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Tuesday.
Fischer said implementing conservation easements is never an easy process, but the Lundin property has been especially difficult. That’s because family members were not in agreement on what the farm’s future should look like.
While some wanted to protect the land or keep it as farmland, others wanted to sell it to developers. Progress toward conserving the property has been slow due to interfamily lawsuits and complicated negotiations with local governments.
“The Lundins deserve tremendous credit for the fact that they have continued to stave off lawsuits, even, so that they could ensure the protection of this property,” Fisher said.
But, Fischer said, the land may soon be protected. The Wasatch County Council will review a new conservation easement agreement at a meeting Wednesday, Dec. 3.
“We are hoping we can see a path forward that satisfies, really assuring that the community money that goes in ends up in a conservation easement, that we can satisfy the other family members,” Fischer said. “We have to cross all the fingers and the toes on this one.”
A $5 million Midway open space bond and a $10 million Wasatch County bond, both passed in 2018, helped fund the purchase of the property.
The meeting begins at 4 p.m. in the Wasatch County Administrative Building.
