By AARON HUFF
Huff@newsroom.byu.edu
Springville is running our of space to continue the city's rapid growth, and the Springville planning commission says it's time to head west.
Wayne Hall, Springville's community development coordinator, said Springville's population is growing at a rate of 11.6 percent each year. Other cities along the Wasatch Front are growing just as fast, he said.
By 2050, the population along the Wasatch Front is expected to double, according to Envision Utah, a public/private community partnership.
'It's growing. It's happening. It's here. We can't stop it,' Hall said.
In a public awareness meeting last week, Hall presented Springville City's plan to annex a total of 2000 acres between Springville and I-15 for residential zoning. The land is to the north and south of 400 South, also known as SR-77.
Hall said 717 acres to the north of SR-77 would be zoned as rural residential, with no more than 2.5 housing units per acre.
To the south of SR-77, approximately 1,300 acres would be zoned as mid-density residential, with 2 to 4.5 units per acre.
Hall said the city is working with developers to preserve open spaces in the new development. The city will allow developers to build six units per acre if they leave 30 percent of the development as 'open land,' he said.
'We're trying to avoid Springville becoming an urban sprawl,' he said
The planning commission is currently in the process of getting signatures from the 101 property owners who are in favor of Springville annexing their property.
If over 50 percent of the property owners agree to be annexed by Springville, Utah county would allow Springville to annex the property, Hall said.
If the county approves the annexation, Hall said, current residents' land in the area will be annexed into a residential zone.
Hall said the city would require residents to share the cost of roads and pay for curb-and-gutter improvements in the case of annexation. In addition, residents would have to pay more property tax, he said.
Several property and homeowners in the area to be annexed are opposed to the annexation.
Jim and Charlynn Hall, 855 W. Center, Springville, relatives of Wayne Hall, live on a six-acre property about one-fourth of a mile from town in the proposed annexation area.
Charlynn Hall said a recent development near their farm destroyed their water system.
'We need to preserve open spaces. The city is sacrificing the quality of lives. They don't understand what they're giving away,' she said.
Jim Hall's father, Dutch Hall, owns six acres in the annexation area.
Dutch Hall said he is very concerned about the negative effects of new developments on wildlife. Dutch owns a variety of wild ducks, swans, geese, kangaroos and ostriches.
Dutch Hall said all the fish he planted in a nearby pond were killed because of a new development, Pheasant Meadows. He said the destruction of wildlife will get worse.
'I'm opposed, but it is definitely going to come. There's no way to stop it,' he said.