Nancy and Terry Sparks moved to Utah County's Cedar Hills from Salt Lake's Millcreek area four years ago, just as the town was getting established.
"We wanted to get away. We got more for our money here, and we kinda wanted to get back to a rural feel. We've been really happy," Nancy Sparks said.
She's hoping the flavor of the little community, nestled against the foothills near American Fork Canyon, won't change a lot with the growth.
"I know there's always going to be change, and I can't say, 'You've built my house, now stop building for anyone else,' " she said, "But I don't want to lose that rural feeling. We just kind of want to have it stay small town."
According to just-released 2000 Census numbers, Cedar Hills was the fastest-growing community in the state in the past decade with a whopping 302 percent increase in population, increasing from 769 residents to 3,094. A look at Utah's 10 fastest-growing cities and towns reveals that many quiet little communities were "discovered" in the past 10 years.
With the exception of Draper, it appears all of the fastest-growing communities did so because of in-migration and not higher birthrates. Exact figures on household size and birthrates won't be released until later this year, but figures released this week show the number of residents 17 and younger generally went down — as much as 9.2 percent in Woodland Hills and 8.2 percent in South Jordan. The percentage of children in Draper rose from 26.2 to 32 percent.
The influx of new arrivals has left some communities struggling to deal with strained resources and tension between old-timers and new residents.
Erda, a Tooele County farming community that recorded a 122 percent population boom in the past decade, is now home to 2,473 residents, up from 1,113 in 1990.
Judy Warr, a cattle rancher who has lived in Erda for the past 40 years, says the influx has created some conflicts between newcomers and those like herself who have lived there for decades.
"They want to get away from the city. When they get out here they want to make this the city," Warr said. "I have had people complain about my cows mooing in the night. They should have stayed to hear the cars honk and the sirens scream."
Like Erda, one of the biggest challenges of Midvale's population growth has been meshing the old Midvale with the new Midvale, city administrator Lee King said.
"We've tried to be very sensitive when integrating the new people into the old," he said. "We haven't really changed anything. We still have our traditional celebrations, they're just larger."
Midvale's population growth is due almost exclusively to annexation rather than immigration. In January 1998 the city annexed some 15,000 residents in the Fort Union area, more than doubling its population.
The question some cities are asking now is how to provide services for two and three times the number of people, especially when a larger sales tax base didn't come along with the new residents.
In Elk Ridge people are arriving in droves, but officials wonder if the small Utah County community can stand another 10 years of immigration like it witnessed in the '90s.
Elk Ridge was Utah's sixth-fastest growing city in the '90s. Since the city has no retail stores, it operates without sales tax revenue.
City leaders aren't opposed to more growth, but the infrastructure isn't there. For that reason, Elk Ridge officials likely won't approve more building permits unless new wells are built or the city aligns itself with a water district.
"If we have the ability to serve people, then the town is all for the growth," City Recorder Jan Davis said. "I think the main concern that people have is that we don't overextend our resources. We don't want to grow up too fast."
When South Jordan managers realized a population boom would sweep across the south end of the valley, they started recruiting. The community lacked the necessary tax base to provide social services to a population that grew from 12,220 to 29,437 between 1990 and 2000.
"We knew the growth was going to happen, so we had to find ways to deal with it," said Deputy City Manager Keith Morey.
South Jordan searched for commercial and industrial development that would bring in new revenue to support the residential expansion.
Cities on the cusp of a population boom should treat it as they would treat a potential disaster, Draper Community Development director Eric Keck said.
"Once growth is upon you, you can only react," he said. "Planning is important, especially for infrastructure and preserving open space."
Although growth can bring positive changes, Keck said Draper did not prepare as well as it could have, and as a result struggled to control growth during the initial wave of newcomers. Since then, the city has done a better job and has had the comfortably steady expansion that benefits it the most.
Not everyone says population change is a difficult thing — some even say their way of life has stayed the same or improved.
Katie Beecher of Lehi says he's not alarmed or concerned about the growth "as long as somebody is making sure we have enough water and power."
And David Hasen, who has lived in Ivins all his life, says that with a greater demand for housing his property values have gone up. Hasen farms hay and grain in the rural area near St. George. What once was an open expanse surrounding his farm is now spotted with "more people, more roads and more houses."
While the growth has challenged the rural feel of the city, Hasen welcomes it.
"I accept that it is going to happen. The growth has been good," he said.
E-mail: ehayes@desnews.com
Contributing: Matt Canham, Brady Snyder, Josh Loftin, Rodger Hardy, Sharon Haddock