Ogden City and School District Working Together

News came out this week that Ogden City and the Ogden City School district have entered into an agreement to work together regarding land development and use within the city. Currently, the School District owns some hodge podge lots and obsolescing schools that it wants to make useful. The city also owns some land that is adjacent to many of the school's parcels. The school district needs land to build schools and the city wants land for more possible in-fill development.

The arrangement they have made will be good for the city. It includes some land swaps and also some colusion on development on other areas.

I think the most interesting part of this arrangement is the land swap proposed.

The above photo is of Dee School and the LDS Church Pioneer Ward building. I will let you guess which building is which. (HINT: The church is not the military looking edifice in the right of the photo.) The Dee lot is expansive and consumes the entire center section of the block. It would be an ideal location for new residential construction. This location is only two blocks from The Junction. The school is steel and reinforced concreste with no walls in the classroom areas. The floorplan is circular in design. Think of the USS Enterprise from Star Trek. That's what it feels like inside the school. Its an architectural atrocity.


Here is a photo of the front of the school. Not much different than the back...or the side...or the other side. Dee has been scheduled to close and then unscheduled to close multiple times in the last couple of years.

The proposed land swap is for city land at 20th Street and Jackson Avenue.


This parcel of land happens to sit adjacent to the school district land that runs along 20th Street down to Monroe. It makes sense for the city to exchange this land with the school district. It is close to the school district headquarters campus and large enough for an elementary school.

Another interesting colusion involves land at 24th and Adams. I am unsure what the possibilities are for this land. The large space is owned by the city and the building just to the north is owned by the district.

It will be interesting to watch and see how this partnership helps make better use of the land that each partner has stewardship over.