KAYSVILLE -- The city's last theatrical production was five years ago, and now the Happy Hollow Pageant Committee wants to revive its popular plays by raising $200,000 and building an amphitheater on 11 acres of city-owned land.
The undeveloped property at approximately 750 N. U.S. 89 is full of vegetation and gullies and sits between Crestwood Road and 200 North."We quit because we didn't have a home," Margaret Brough, president of the pageant committee, said.
Its most recent production was "The Wizard of Oz" in 1993 that attracted an estimated 20,000 people to a makeshift amphitheater in Happy Hollow, west of the proposed site, near 500 East and 500 North.
The City Council Tuesday night approved to a new nine-lot subdivision in a portion of the original Happy Hollow area owned by Ute Knowlton.
Brough said she believes her committee can raise the $200,000 needed to construct the amphitheater in what she thinks should be the city's new Happy Hollow Park. She would like to present "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" there in the summer of 2000.
The council directed the committee and the city's parks staff to do further feasibility studies. The proposal will be discussed further at the Council's Jan. 19, meeting.
"Overall, I think it's a good idea if we can put it together," Councilman Darrell Horne said.
Other council members and Mayor Brian Cook like the concept, but still have concerns over funding to build roads and parking lots in the park, its upkeep and the prospective park's remote location.
"It's basically building a park in Fruit Heights," Cook said. "Kaysville access is limited."
Brough said she doesn't believe the park's location is an issue because east Kaysville needs another park and this is the best place to put one.
Real estate developer Gary M. Wright of Fruit Heights has donated his time and services to the project and said he believes the property is not suitable for homes but perfect for a wooded park, like Farmington's Woodland Park that also contains an amphitheater.
"It's a beautiful piece of property. . . . The terrain lends itself very well to this use," he said.
Wright envisions hiking trails and picnic areas in the park, but no sports facilities.
Brough said she believes the park could be developed in stages and a graded road and dirt or grass parking facilities might get the amphitheater by during its first season or two.
The amphitheater plan is to use grass for seating rather than benches. About 2 to 3 acres of the property would need developing for the amphitheater.
Councilman H. Arthur Johnson said he believes the property will be very expensive to develop.
Besides roads and parking, water and sewer service would also be expensive to develop there. Wright agrees that sewer, because of the gullies on the land, has been the biggest drawback to anyone wanting to develop the property.
Councilman Stephen Whitesides said the city was unable to get a developer to purchase the land a few years ago. However, making a park there means it would remain open space.
A frontage road on the east end of the property has been proposed by the Utah Department of Transportation as a part of its future expansion plans for U.S. 89.