Dear Editor:
The Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA) needs to be concerned about their image to the residents of San Juan County.
Prior to moving to San Juan County, I was involved with Grand County politics for 25 years. SITLA’s image in Grand County has been tarnished by their refusal to follow Grand County, the City of Moab and Castle Valley land-use codes.
SITLA’s sale of property to an operation that is known to attract drug dealers, prostitutes and transients will result in an adversary conflict between SITLA and the local residence.
The local residents are asking that the San Juan Spanish Valley Special Service District Board be elected by residents of the district and not appointed by the San Juan County Commission. This board will have the authority to allocate the 500-acre-feet of available water to residential use and not large commercial use.
SITLA’s current efforts to exempt themselves from San Juan County’s land-use code only reinforces the image that SITLA does not want to part be of the Spanish Valley community. The image is the dollar comes first and the residents are not important. SITLA needs to remove this exemption from the land-use code.
The truck stop can be moved south of the Old Airport Road. SITLA needs to inform Love’s corporate office that they may not have water for their facility for many years and they will not receive local support of any kind from most residents in the area. Notifying purchasers of SITLA land of potential development problems should be part of SITLA due diligence.
Bill Love
San Juan County
