Sandy homeowners will decide Nov. 3 whether the city should buy the former Crescent View Middle School property for $17 million, after the City Council voted Tuesday, Aug. 11 to place the bond measure on the ballot.

The council adopted Resolution 26-78C at its regular meeting, authorizing a special bond election that would let voters decide whether to issue general obligation bonds to finance acquiring and renovating the 17-acre site at 11150 S. 300 East.

The property sits adjacent to Crescent Park and connects to a TRAX station and the Porter Rockwell Trail. Canyons School District owns the land and gave Sandy the first opportunity to purchase it after receiving an offer from a private developer.

Sandy is under contract to buy the property for $17 million. A KSL Newsradio Facebook post referenced a "proposed $21 million bond," a figure that likely reflects the purchase price plus renovation costs. The exact bond amount as it will appear on the ballot has not been publicly confirmed.

According to plans the city shared with KSL in early July, the bond would cost the average Sandy homeowner between $2.72 and $4.80 per month, depending on which development concept is chosen.

The city doesn't have the cash on hand.

"We don't have $17 million, $20 million (or) $30 million laying around the city," Mayor Monica Zoltanski told KSL on July 7. "I've spent the last six months turning over couch cushions just to meet our operations needs. … That's why this would take investment from the voters."

Zoltanski wrote in a July 16 blog post that the city had held multiple community open houses and gathered public input on five concepts for the property. Those range from open space paired with a community center for recreation and the arts, to plans that include some private development, to a fifth option: don't buy the property at all.

The site most recently housed the Canyons School District's Life Skills Academy, a vocational skills school for disabled adults.

Zoltanski has framed the decision as generational, writing that the 17 acres "may represent the last opportunity in our generation to preserve land of this size for future public use" in a city that is nearly built out.

The Crescent View bond is the second major bond measure Sandy-area voters will see this fall. As we reported Aug. 6, Salt Lake County placed a separate $100 million recreation bond on the same November ballot, though that measure includes no Sandy projects.

If Sandy voters reject the Crescent View bond, the school district would likely proceed with the private developer's offer. The resolution needed to reach Salt Lake County by Aug. 20 to qualify for the Nov. 3 ballot.