By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
Controversy over the Riverwalk development in the Town of Davis continued Wednesday night September 25th at the Davis Town Council. Davis resident and developer, Pete Johnson appeared before the Town Council and Mayor Al Tomson to read from a prepared statement during the public comment session of the meeting.
In his statement, Johnson referenced difficulties he said he has endured in maintaining his building permit. According to Johnson in his statement, his permit expired due to the legal proceedings he was enduring with the Town over the Riverwalk Development project eminent domain claim that was recently dismissed by the Town. Johnson also mentioned a series of what he viewed as targeted delays by Mayor Tomson towards him and his development.
Mayor Tomson responded by beginning to read from letters that his office had received from not only the Town attorney, but Johnson’s attorneys, as well. Tomson said that the eminent domain filing did not impact the construction of Johnson’s home in Phase One, as the filing was only on Phase Two.
Johnson rebutted that the filing impacted all of Riverwalk since it included the road that ran through the entirety of the project. The conversation then turned to whether Johnson was a residnet or a developer with Johnson stating that he never intended to be a developer and only became one because he saw a need and a solution to help bring housing to Davis.
It was during a much heated point in the discussion between Johnson and Tomson that City employee Joni Felton stood up and informed Johnson that his time was up and that the matter needed to be settled between attorneys. “This really needs to go between attorneys,” Felton said.
