EAGLE MOUNTAIN -- The developers who touched off a mild panic last month by closing their offices and packing to leave town are now saying they really prefer to stay.
Eric Jones, speaking as one of the three employees still working for John Walden's Eagle Mountain Properties, said Wednesday he and his associates don't want to abandon the "huge" investment they've made in the west desert community."We want to be out here on a long-term basis," Jones said. "We think there are problems, but we think they can be resolved and we have our own solutions. We don't want to walk away."
But for them to stay, the economic strictures must be loosened so builders can sell homes, Jones said. That includes the town council adjusting the impact fees as well as making more of an effort to work with developers.
Impact fees are charges paid by new home buyers to help defray costs to the community. Eagle Mountain's fees are between $8,000 and $11,000.
Earlier, Walden told the council the fees needed to be reduced by two-thirds or to zero to stimulate flagging sales in the town center.
"It's really impacting the builders who need to build in an economic environment conducive to selling competitively," he said.
When the council did not immediately respond, Walden fired most of his staff and shut down the Eagle Mountain Properties office. Walden is now in Florida, Jones said, but keeping tabs on the activity in Eagle Mountain.
Walden describes himself as one of the founders of the new town and owns considerable developable acreage on the town's southwest side. He is also tied into several critical agreements involving water rights and service provisions.
Following Walden's ultimatum, the town council temporarily reduced the impact fees by approximately 50 percent but will define the fees for the long term after a meeting Nov. 30 that will revisit the cost of capital facilities for Eagle Mountain.
Meanwhile, Jones, along with Russ Rosander and Nick Berg, is following through on several projects and items of business Eagle Mountain Properties had pending, including the donation of church sites and bringing a convenience store to the community.
Jones said two plots of land have been offered to the LDS Church for a building, and a temporary convenience store will be open in the town center area within months.
"I think, as everybody knows, we had to change course with everybody laid off," Jones said Tuesday. "We're now working as fast as conditions will allow. As soon as impact fees are reduced, maybe we can properly turn things around.
"We had a wonderful meeting Tuesday with the mayor," Jones said. "We resolved the outstanding bills, which were not $400,000 as previously announced (by Mayor Rob Bateman). I wrote a check for $24,000 and one earlier for $19,000. That's a huge, huge drop from $400,000.
"Tomorrow we work on what we believe the town owes us, which is at least $118,000. They've acknowledged that."
In Tuesday's council session, Rosander asked for permission to start construction on the 7,200 feet of trail that will run from the Landing area to the Pony Express Park.
He was asked at the same time to detail what landscaping would be included.
That kind of thing is irritating, Jones said. "They want us to do more than we agreed to do. We're compromising and we're trying to move forward, but this makes it difficult."
Jones said Eagle Mountain Properties has talked about amenities it has always intended to provide, but some, such as the golf course, cannot go in before enough homes are sold to justify it economically.