DRAPER -- Sandwiched between a McDonald's and cookie-cutter strip mall on 12300 South in Draper is a dairy farm populated by dozens of Holstein cows.
Suburban vs. pastoral. Boomtown's offspring sharing fences with an agrarian sentinel of Draper's history.Draper residents take pride in their agricultural heritage; even the city's emblem includes an illustration of a farmer harvesting wheat with a scythe. But the once rural community is evolving, leaving city leaders to struggle with the divisive demands of massive growth in the '90s.
Change has come hard and fast, said City Manager Jim Smith.
In 1990, Draper's population was 5,350. Today, there are more than 22,000 residents.
Indeed, "residential development" was once an oxymoron in Draper, where a total of 10 homes were built in 1990. "But in the past three years, we've had about 1,000 homes built annually," Smith said.
The explosion won't end anytime soon.
Housing developments on Traverse Ridge -- where city limits extend into Utah County -- are expected to add thousands of new residents in the coming years.
It's no surprise that the speed and size of the change prompts mixed feelings.
"There are some who feel that changes are too much, too fast," while other longtime residents welcome the opportunity to sell farmland while property values are high, Smith said.
Plus, there is the inescapable irony of homebuyers fleeing larger cities for Draper in search of open space and rural living -- which their coming helps to destroy.
Managing growth, said first-term Mayor Richard Alsop, begins with wise planning to ensure wise ordinances are in place to deal with development.
The city's bottom line in the midst of such change: Never make decisions that mess with Draper's quality of life.
That charge won't be easily satisfied in the coming years, Alsop admits.
An aggressive impact fee program has been pivotal in providing the city with the financial support that growth demands. But eventually the city will be built-out, and some wonder whether Draper will remain fiscally healthy when impact fees disappear.
"It boils down to increasing property taxes or increasing the city's commercial base," said Alsop, adding that Draper's current business community needs developing.
A stretch along 12300 South has become the city's business section in recent years, but a balanced commercial base "is less developed than it needs to be," Alsop said.
Area residents have already demonstrated a willingness to cough up dollars to meet growth. In 1997, Jordan School District voters approved a $154 million bond to build new schools and acquire land for future buildings.
"We've been able to keep up with growth," said district spokeswoman Melinda Rock.
Much of the impact has come at the elementary school level. The district recently opened Oak Hollow Elementary in Draper to ease the burden on other Draper-feeder elementaries like Draper, Sprucewood and Lone Peak.
All four of the elementaries handling the Draper area are on year-round schedules to accommodate more students, Rock said.
Crescent View Middle School in Sandy is also being squeezed by Draper growth, so district leaders are studying boundary changes to shift Draper students to other middle schools.
Rock added that a new private school being built in Draper may ease some of the growth pressure being felt by area schools.
Residential growth has already been a catalyst for institutional change in Draper.
The City Council is developing an administration prepared to handle growth. The August hiring of Smith -- an Easterner with a history of managing communities experiencing vigorous growth -- illustrates the changing job description of city staffers.
Additional growth-related jobs are also being filled, including a full-time staffer dedicated to acquiring and protecting open space.
Keeping one hand tightly gripped on Draper's past, emphasize Draper leaders, is vital.
"The city is making an effort, in appropriate places, to preserve agricultural areas," Smith said.
Elected officials and staff may sometimes feel like they are playing a civic form of Twister, carrying out the opposing tasks of managing Draper's growth and defending its rural heritage.
A study is now under way to identify the city's historical core. At the same time, the city is creating a "major progress review team" to enlist engineering and growth professionals to deal with Traverse Ridge-area developments.
Given the well-publicized rifts between past Draper councils and administrations, it's vital that elected officials and city staff become comfortable in their separate roles of making and implementing growth policy, Smith said.
Despite the population shift, Smith said he doesn't expect Draper to become entirely autonomous.
The city can't afford its own full-service fire and rescue department and Draper leaders are satisfied with the public safety services currently provided by contract with Salt Lake County, said Smith.
Growth won't happen without some pain. But effective, cooperative planning will ease Draper's uneasy shift from a rural town to suburban city, Smith said.