Kearns is going after city status to prevent territorial plundering by its neighbors.
Residents of the town filed an incorporation petition with the county election office Wednesday - the same day the county announced West Valley City could annex the site of a proposed commercial development in Kearns as long as it shares the tax revenue.Town residents may have set a record for gathering signatures on incorporation petitions. It took just three days to get 1,000 residents to sign in support of becoming a city.
"Three days says a lot about this community," said Wendy Brooks, chairwoman of the Kearns Town Council.
Kearns residents say they don't want to be part of West Valley City or West Jordan, and they're tired of worrying about losing ground to their two neighbors.
"The only way we could see to preserve our community was to incorporate our area," Brooks said. "We don't want them dividing us up. We don't want to be spoils to the victors. We want to stay Kearns."
Council vice chairman Roger Nafus said many residents would prefer staying part of the unincorporated county, but can't stand by idly while "these people are coming in and picking apart the tax base of our area."
The proposed city, which started out its life as an army camp in 1941, would be sandwiched between West Valley City and West Jordan. It would have about 41,900 residents. (See accompanying map for the proposed city's boundaries.)
Besides residential property, the proposed city's tax base would be derived from several commercial plazas and a portion of Kennecott Corporation. The city of Kearns would also have something that's in short supply elsewhere in the valley: lots of open space for future development.
"The whole reason in wanting to become a city is to maintain (our) own individuality," Brooks said. "We're not West Valley City and we're not West Jordan. We're proud of what we are. Nobody is after a super large city. We're after a city that reflects what we've always been - which is a good neighborhood and community."
Kearns residents have long batted about the possibility of cityhood, but talks took on new urgency in the past several weeks.
First, West Valley City filed a petition to annex a chunk of land at approximately 5651 West and 5400 South, where Smith's Food and Drug Center wants to build a new store.
West Valley City and West Jordan then announced they planned to sit down and map out where each city's future boundaries would fall.
To the chagrin of Kearns residents, it was clear those boundaries would bisect their town.
Kearns residents plan to turn in more signed petitions supporting incorporation next week. The county clerk's office will then spend a week or so verifying signatures before forwarding the petitions to the Salt Lake County Commission.
The commission will then decide whether to OK a feasibility study of the proposed city.
"We did the very best we could to protect the unincorporated area with the deal we made with West Valley City," said Commission Chairman Brent Overson.
In fact, the deal the county hammered out with West Valley City over the Smith's Food and Drug property requires West Valley City to return the property to a future city that forms in Kearns.
However, Kearns is fully within its right to seek incorporation to protect it from annexation by neighboring cities, Overson said.
"If the citizens want to petition to incorporate, we're willing to help," Overson said.
One other area, Taylorsville/Bennion, is already vying to become the county's 13th municipality. The county has hired the Fry Management Group to study the feasibility of that area's incorporation. The Kearns request for city status is the 16th incorporation quest since 1978.
While the county studies Kearns' incorporation request, all new annexation proposals will be on hold. That means Kearns residents can rest assured their town won't be whittled out from under them - at least for now.
Still to be resolved is how each of the three entities - West Valley City, Kearns and West Jordan - will eventually shape up. West Valley City's amended annexation map shows its south boundary eventually at 6200 South. West Jordan has proposed placing its north boundary at 5400 South.
Overson met Friday with West Jordan city officials and gave them advice: "Hold its line" at 6200 South.