Although many residents and city officials still disagree about the costs and benefits of a new Smith's Food and Drug being built in west Provo, no one can deny that the long process of approving the store provided a much-needed catharsis for a troubled city.
Smith's executives first approached the Provo City Council about building a store and shopping center on the corner of Geneva Road and Center Street in January 1998. Last Tuesday, in a 5-2 vote after two hours of debate, the Council approved the $8 million project. It took one year, several public hearings, development studies, and a city-appointed mediator for a decision to finally be reached on what began as a simple rezoning request.
One reason the process was extended so long was that the City Council was not dealing with just one issue. The Smith's proposal brought attention to city problems that had been lurking below the surface for years: the west side's feeling of neglect, a perception that city has a tendency to put feel-good projects like baseball diamonds and skateparks ahead of necessities like storm drainage and street maintenance, and Provo's unreadiness for growth.
Not all of those problems have been solved, but the city's dirty laundry has been aired and the lines of communication are more open as a result of the Smith's controversy, people involved in the process said.
'I think people feel now that they have the city's ear and they're listening to us. Hopefully we won't have to hold a business hostage to get their ear another time,' said Provo Bay neighborhood chair Anita Reid.
Reid's neighborhood will host the new shopping center, and she said while about 60 percent of the residents still oppose the growth, that that number is down from the original number who felt that the city was pushing the motion through without considering residents' concerns.
Some people still feel that the land west of I-15 is the 'unwanted stepchild' of Provo, and that the city government is either incapable or unwilling to understand the area's needs.
West side resident Clarke Woodger said he thinks the city council has 'so little vision it is pathetic' and that the commercial growth, when it inevitably comes, should be placed further west, near the airport, or further north, near Orem, instead of on the already-congested Center Street.
Woodger said he thinks that the weight of the store will raise the water table in an area where some homeowners already have to pump water out of their basements year-round.
'They mayor pointed out to me that most new houses down there don't have basements, and that's true,' he said. 'But you already have an entire sinking subdivision there that's been here for 18 years and already has basements,' he said.
If water problems do become serious for area residents or homes become devalued because of the traffic at the intersection, Woodger thinks the City Council will be unprepared to offer help.
'They'll turn a deaf ear and people will have no recourse. This government is immune from suit. Smith's will have no obligation and the people will just have to get by,' he said.
What good feelings do exist about the decision primarily deal with the mediation process. After several public hearings in which no conclusion could be reached, the City Council decided to appoint Richard Dalebout, a BYU information systems professor and former Provo City attorney, to lead a mediation. It was the first time in Provo's history that any development situation called for formal mediation.
Dalebout held meetings in each affected neighborhood, then met with neighborhood chairs alone, then with the chairs and Smith's representatives. The mediation finally produced a letter signed by all the neighborhood chairs, stating that if Smith's was built, the store should also pay to put in storm drainage, sidewalks, and attractive landscaping.
'I don't think there was any mediation member who didn't learn something and who didn't appreciate the opportunity to have that learning experience,' Reid said.
Even councilmember Cindy Richards, one of the two who voted against the growth, supported the mediation.
'I'd like to salute and validate the mediation process. A lot of good people got involved and I'm glad we did this. Whenever you start stirring up opinions, some opinions are going to get stirred up, but overall I think this was a very good process,' Richards said.
Woodger said he still dislikes the path mediation took, saying that the process was not a genuine attempt to gauge neighborhood concern as much as it was an effort to persuade neighborhood chairs to the city's point of view.
'Those neighborhood chairs who signed the mediation, if they had known it was going to be spun as general support for the project, they would never have signed it,' Woodger said.
Many residents felt that the mediation letter was an endorsement of the development, which Dalebout said is inaccurate. He said the mediation committee did not have the right to make a recommendation about growth: they could only make a list of requirements the neighborhood chairs insisted be met if the shopping center was to be built regardless of opposition.
'The letter is being twisted as approval of the project, and I don't know where that projection came from. It's like those parties where you whisper in someone's ear and they whisper in someone else's ear and people get talking about it, and eventually the thing develops a life of its own,' Dalebout said.
But overall, the experience was a learning opportunity for city officials, residents, and would-be Provo business owners.
'This first time through the mediation process taught us a lot about defining issues -- we learned that it's always good to know what we're trying to decide and who the decision makers are, who's going to say yes and no. But given that this was the first time through, it was a success. We learned an awful lot about things we need to adjust and change if we did it again,' Dalebout said.
Reid said there are still plenty of things she'd like to see changed.
'If we're making a wish list, I'd like to see a brand new Center Street, the storm drain issue taken care of, the neighborhoods on the south side of Center Street given fair market value for their homes and allowed to relocate, and a new bridge over the river on Geneva Road,' she said.
She also thinks the city should change the mediation process, and begin holding neighborhood meetings long before proposed development reaches the final stage of approval at the City Council.
'This was a good process and it's something that if there's ever this strong an opposition again should be implemented, but at the beginning rather than at the end. Don't underestimate the mediation process,' she said.