When city and county officials sit down Wednesday morning, they’ll talk about buying the idled Farmland fertilizer plant. But they still aren’t sure what to do with the property.

Economic development officials said the plant could be reused by companies looking to produce value-added agricultural products such as soy diesel or ethanol. Environmentalists see potential parkland.

From the East Coast, however, a third option emerges — luxury housing.

In the East, an increasing number of former industrial sites — called “brownfields” — are being re-created into upscale housing developments. In Pittsburgh, one development was built on top of a 25-story “slag heap” of steel manufacturing byproducts. The houses are selling for as much as $700,000.

“There are a preponderance of brownfields close to existing neighborhoods,” said Niall Kirkwood, a professor of landscape architecture and technology at the Harvard Design School. “So these lands are being looked at for residential development.”

There’s usually government support for such work. Several states have guaranteed developers against liability if they clean up the sites to meet state standards. And the federal government has authorized payment of $200 million to developers of brownfields.

Alvamar East at Farmland? Hmm …

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And in Utah, officials in Tooele County are taking an approach like Douglas County’s ECO2 committee to address the tensions between environmental preservation and economic development.

Landowners and environmentalists in Utah have joined a committee of state regulators, water experts, local leaders and others to study a 70,000-acre area south of the Great Salt Lake, two-thirds of it wetlands, for prospective development and preservation.

The committee expects to present its findings in April and start making decisions thereafter. Both sides are expecting to make some compromises, realizing that federal regulations govern much of what can happen in the wetlands.

“I would always like to avoid impacts to wetlands,” said Lynn de Freitas, president of Friends of Great Salt Lake. “But I know that’s not always possible.”

¢ Cup O’Joel blog

Growthwatch is a periodic look at how towns and cities across the country are handling growth issues. Information is compiled from Journal-World wire services and other sources. Have ideas? Call Joel Mathis at 832-7126.