There’s an ongoing conflict between a Page citizen’s group and city officials over 5.81 acres of city real estate. People attending, or watching the YouTube livestream of the July 12 Page City Council meeting, witnessed unusually heated exchanges. There was finger pointing, accusations and general chaos. Some allowed their tempers to flair while others tried to calm the brewing storm. It’s a complex problem complicated further the mingling of personal and public interests, clouded with communication breakdowns, and an ambiguous state law known as the “Gift Clause.”  

The property in question borders Lake Powell Golf Course off Vista Avenue near Page Hospital. The citizen’s group appears to include two forces, those who own homes and don’t want their views obscured, and those who want the property designated as a memorial park and/or open space.

One faction of the citizen’s group, referring to the property as Frost Park, wants to see the land used as a reflection or memorial park. Jim Frost, a Page city employee, died in the late 1980s when the idea of a memorial park began according to Debi Roundtree. “We knew Mr. Frost and he kind of signified all of our ancestors who had come to Page.”  

Mayor Bill Diak spoke candidly with the Chronicle about the conflict. “It is all about the views because now, at this last meeting, they don't want to call it Jimmy Frost Park anymore, or Frost Park. They want to call it Pioneer Park because we're coming up on an anniversary of 50 years. So they thought, ‘well, maybe we should name it Pioneer Park.’ They forgot about Jimmy now. So basically, it's been going on for years and years and years and years. And the reason council keeps kicking it down the road is because there's some legal aspects for council. This council seems a little bit more willing to take the risk. It is about the views. No matter what they say, the view has always been what they've been asking for. They've tried every other thing.

“Here's the thing. When we built the hotels down there on Haul Road, we blocked some of the views from those people at Ranchette Estates. We don't take that into consideration. We take zoning into consideration. And part of the issue is we cannot gift or do something for some citizens that we are not willing to do for others. So it's like opening a can of worms. Once you do that, then you're bound to do it moving forward.”

The mingling of public and personal interests is also complicated by groups not understanding or attempting to skirt established protocols. City staff, boards and council members have specific rules and procedures to manage and govern by. If those lines are breached, problems can arise. For example, taxpayers and businesses have sued local governments in Arizona for violating the “Gift Clause,” including Phoenix, Peoria and Pima County. In addition to government liability, lawsuits can go after city council members and county supervisors responsible for the violation.

“The state of Arizona has a gift clause that says we cannot gift land [or] services to any particular group,” said Diak. “That's where this council seems to be willing to take a risk.”

Diak said he added the Frost parcel for public discussion to the July 12 agenda at counselor Richard Lightener’s request. The item was originally slated for an executive session and Lightener wanted the council to hear fresh information from citizens before going into the closed executive session. Staff had requested the executive session to brief council on the laws.

“[Staff] didn't want to offend some people by saying, look, here's some rules, laws and stuff that you guys need to consider in this process,” said Diak. “Well, at least one council member decided that we didn't need to go into executive session and hear staff.”  Council voted not go into executive session and have a public discussion, putting city staff, including City Attorney Josh Smith and City Manager Darren Coldwell in an awkward position and effectively squelched the planned legal briefing.

Diak said, “Way back in March, we kicked this can down the road and it rematerializes and it raises its head again every time we get some new council people. Let's make a decision and be done with it so we don't have to continue to do this over and over because it gets very problematic. It's hard on staff to go through this all the time. It's hard on council because they want to appease the citizens, and the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so to speak.

“And that's why I says, look, let's make a decision on it and move forward. We have turned land sales down on this before because of this very thing. Not that we don't have anything going on right now, but it needs to be resolved and I hope that we can resolve it. And I'm not against it, but I'm going to protect myself. And if it comes to a vote, I'm probably going to be the last one to vote. And if it's a tie, then I'll break the tie. Other than that, I'm not going to liable myself.”

Page has a Council-Manager form of local government. The day to day operations and minor projects are generally handled by city staff. The larger decisions and expenditures must go before council for approval. City boards, like Parks and Recreation, Planning and Zoning, Economic Development work with city staff to evaluate potential projects. The process acts as a buffer to weed out impractical or risky ideas and develops well-researched, thought-out proposals for council to consider. Presentations are made in open meetings for council to ask questions, discuss, and eventually voice a yay or nay vote.

When the Frost parcels were discussed at the March 2023 council meeting, counselor Brian Carey said, “This one's kind of personal to me because I've had a similar situation with property that we moved to in Texas, so I understand when all of a sudden the backyard that you thought was something other than what somebody else thought is changed -- and the concept for that is changed.

“I think that's what we're looking at now for these six residents along Navajo. You've enjoyed in open space for five decades. I've got to fast forward the clock to 2023 we have 5.81 Acres of highly developable land on the gorgeous viewscape there bordered to the right by some properties that have fallen out of repair and perhaps are not as scenic as we would like to see, a short-term hotel, a church and a defunct dental office.

“I toured those areas and it sure would be nice to see a little revitalization on all boundaries of this spot here. I was on the Parks and Recreation board in 2016. The mayor put me on that. We did a big communitywide planning effort for all the parks. There was never a mention of Frost Park during that whole process of 2016-2017.

“Even in more recent iterations of looking at Park planning and whatnot, the only time this Frost Park comes up is when people want to protect the views that they've enjoyed and they feel they might be threatened.  We've talked about parks a lot and we've looked at several here in the recent and have decided not to fund certain things or not to do certain things because we're trying to spend our money wisely.

“Does the city need another publicly designated open space when we’re not going to do anything but [add] some benches? I'm not sure whether that's the highest and best use there. There's opportunity to do the sponsorships and the memorialization here at our Veterans Park or at the new Rec Center when it gets developed.

“I'm not quite sure what I'm going to try to advocate here, but if it's parks and open space, I can guarantee you that I would advocate as a council person that we develop something on that and not leave it as an open space. We're going to need a park. We're going to put a swimming pool there or we're going to put something else on that 5 acres and not just have it be an open space.”

This article is the second of a multipart series on housing and land use in Page. Next week, Lake Powell Chronicle will look at a citizens group’s perspective, featuring an interview with Debi Roundtree and highlights from past council meetings. The following week will feature and overview of Page’s housing crisis, including the obstacles in providing affordable housing.