The City of Ogden has first dibs on the property per state law and the administration of Mayor Mike Caldwell is proposing acquisition of three of the four parcels for development into housing.

Steve Van Wagoner, who heads an Ogden soccer club, has pressed city leaders to buy the land for use as park space instead. And with a Dec. 20 deadline looming for the city to act, he asked school officials to rescind the offer of the land to the city so the park proposal can get more consideration.

“PLEASE rescind the offer to sell to give our city leaders, including our City Council, the time to fully understand the once-in-a-generation opportunity we (all) have together,” Van Wagoner said in an email Friday to school and city officials, sent to the Standard-Examiner as well. He was reiterating a similar message in a Nov. 30 message to school officials.

Jennifer Zundel, president of the Ogden school board, replied, noting the process school officials followed in deciding to declare the land surplus on Sept. 15, paving the way for its sale. They tapped feedback from community leaders, parents and others.

It is the responsibility of board members to deem property no longer needed by the district as surplus “as it would be fiscally irresponsible to our taxpayers for the district to continue to manage these properties for purposes other than education,” Zundel wrote in an email Friday.

She went on, noting that Weber County and the City of Ogden have first right of refusal to buy the land, the vacant sites where Grandview and Lynn elementary schools once sat as well as two abutting parcels off Jackson Avenue in northern Ogden. The county isn’t interested in the land, which measures 18.2 acres in all and has a collective appraised value of $2.41 million.

“If the city acquires surplus property from the district, it is the city’s purview to determine the use of the property it would then own. The Board of Education feels comfortable in the decision to surplus the properties in question,” Zundel said in her message to Van Wagoner, also sent to the Standard-Examiner.

City officials must act by Dec. 20, per state law, and the Ogden City Council is to consider a declaration of intent to acquire part of the land at its meeting next Tuesday. Caldwell’s administration proposes buying 13 acres of the land for housing development, foregoing acquisition of the ex-Grandview Elementary parcel.

Van Wagoner said more green space and sports fields are needed in Ogden to keep pace with the city’s growing population and to encourage healthy living.