Country neighbors lost their battle to keep 19.53 acres of what used to be Eunice Kent's property southwest of Orem out of Orem Tuesday.
Despite pleas from residents who said annexation, proposed by Paul Washburn for Gardner & Associates, is inappropriate and out of place in the rural community, the Orem City Council voted unanimously to approve the request."Where's the democracy?" asked resident Roy Nelson.
"I don't understand why we're not being heard," said Cheryl Johnson, also a resident and owner of property next to the annexation. "It's really not what we want and not compatible with what we do here."
Johnson said the rural lifestyle most of the area residents pursue will conflict with whatever development happens on the parcel annexed to Orem.
Councilman Chris Yandow explained that Orem exists in a republic based on democratic principles and one of those principles is the right to develop one's property within legal guidelines.
The council agreed that Washburn's request for annexation meets all the legal requirements and cannot be de-nied.
None of the five governmental entities that would be affected by a loss in tax revenue or a move in boundary lines or would be burdened with providing extra services had responded to protest the annexation in the five days since the request came before the council.
Those entities included the city of Provo, the city of Lindon, Utah County, the Utah Boundary Commission and the Utah County Planning and Building Department.
An attorney for the residents, David Jeffs, said Vineyard should also have been notified and since it hadn't been, the an-nexa-tion should not go forward. He filed a protest in behalf of the neighbors, citing the incompatibility of use as grounds for denial. He also said the annexation creates a peninsula of the neighbors' land.
Paul Johnson, attorney for the city of Orem, said he did not believe Vineyard fit the qualifications of an "affected entity" and could not affect the process. He said the protest from the neighbors was "insufficient" to qualify as a legal protest.
Johnson also said he did not understand why Lindon was notified but that he felt there was nolegal basis to hold up the annexation.
A protest from an affected entity would have pushed the matter into the hands of the Boundary Commission.
"We're a rural community right on the verge of becoming a burgeoning community," said Yandow. "It's been happening every day since we incorporated Orem in 1919."