DRAPER — Its southern hillside now covered with homes, this once-rural community has ballooned from 9,000 residents to nearly 30,000 in less than a decade.
Several of those residents are now asking when is enough enough?
Perhaps it's when that wave of residential development spills over into the city's most pristine mountain paradise, Corner Canyon, a watershed and recreation area on Draper's southeastern bench.
Development already has encroached on this haven for horseback riders, hikers, bikers and wildlife. But now, 326 acres within a 1,035-acre chunk in the heart of Corner Canyon have been targeted for development. And that is making city officials nervous.
"It's a great landmark for the city," Draper City Manager Eric Keck said. "It's not only aesthetically beautiful, but it is certainly ecologically significant as well as significant for wildlife habitat that's been stressed out by all the development that's going on here."
The 1,035 acres are part of 2,400 acres, between the Alpine Scenic Loop Road and Traverse Ridge Road, the city would like to preserve as permanent open space. The land is owned by Corner Canyon Properties, a consortium of the Draper Irrigation Co., two smaller water companies and the city of Riverton, which acquired its share through the purchase of another water company years earlier.
Draper Irrigation, which delivers drinking and irrigation water to nearly the entire city, has come under fire from some of its customers for wanting to develop land treasured by many residents. Those folks find it ironic Draper Irrigation would aggressively police its watershed for so many years, doing everything it could to protect the hillside, then decide to bring bulldozers, pavement, underground utilities — and ultimately entire neighborhoods of people and vehicles — into the canyon.
"They have clamped down over the years and kept people from driving on that (land), and I just don't know if you can have it both ways," said state Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Draper, who lives in neighboring South Mountain. "And at the end of the day, I don't want my water company being a developer. That's not the role of a water company."
"In the municipal elections that we've had as the city has grown, the citizens have all looked for places where they want to maintain open space and recreational uses, and the Corner Canyon area just lends itself to that. I think it's an area that all the city wants to see preserved." Corner Canyon Properties attorney Hollis Hunt, however, points out Draper Irrigation is a business, with debts. It is simply trying to use its resources to benefit the company and its 16,000 shareholders, he said.
Draper Irrigation, also known by its management arm's moniker of Water Pro, installed a pressurized irrigation system during the 1990s and had to borrow money to do it.
"They would like to clear that debt," Hunt said, adding that the other three partners in the consortium have similar financial needs. "The property is for sale. If Draper City would like to preserve it as a park, we have no problem with that. But they need to buy it so that it is city property."
Hunt said more than 700 acres of Corner Canyon Properties' land have a slope steeper than 30 percent, prohibiting any development there. Several springs and Corner Canyon Creek, important sources of water for Draper Irrigation, are located on the hillside but would not be disturbed by development, he said.
"The watershed would not be affected. In fact, this would be one way to preserve it," Hunt said, adding that because the area is not fenced, horses, bikes and all-terrain vehicles often come into contact with the water sources. "There's a lot of damage done to those facilities now. There are large areas of park and open space that have been proposed in the development (for public use), some with formal landscaping and others in a more primitive state."
City officials, meanwhile, have numerous concerns about the proposal, which does not conform with Draper's zoning and general plan maps. "Certainly, we are interested in seeing if we can play a part in the preservation and conservation of the Corner Canyon area, including grant funds and general obligation bonds for the acquisition of open space in the Corner Canyon area," Keck said. "That has not been finalized yet, but it's something that we are looking at so we can be part of the solution for that area."
The city is pondering the idea of placing a $10 million bond issue before Draper voters to purchase land in Corner Canyon. A survey found Draper residents about evenly split on the proposal.
The city has its own water company, which serves a small number of residents but is also a primary customer — and an influential shareholder with 700 Class A shares — in Draper Irrigation. At the company's annual shareholders meeting March 9, candidates supported by some city officials ran for election to the Draper Irrigation Board of Directors. But the attempted coup, which could have led to a board decision not to develop Corner Canyon, failed. Hughes, who attended that meeting along with about 300 other Draper Irrigation shareholders, said the company's structure runs counter to management changes.
Class A shareholders, those who use the company's pressurized irrigation system, typically own multiple shares and thus have more votes in any membership election. And only class A shareholders can hold a board position. Class B shareholders, mostly residential customers who simply use the company's water and pay a monthly bill, receive one vote each and have come to feel "disenfranchised," Hughes said.
"One gentleman had 1,030 votes on his own," Hughes said, adding it was a difficult process to obtain and decipher the company's bylaws. "The problem is, those bylaws change, they change all the time. There's just not any light being shed into this company where we know what money is being used for what endeavor, because there are things they can't use customer money for, but there is no way of knowing where that line has been drawn."
Darrin Jensen, Water Pro's financial director, said Hughes and all other shareholders receive audited financial statements that are "pretty detailed." He said he knows of no inappropriate use of funds by the company.
"The only reason we got into this is trying to reduce some of our long-term debt, which benefits the individual customer. It helps keep rates down," Jensen said.
Hughes also said he understands Draper Irrigation has, in the past, lent money to private developers. Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Draper, who is developing land adjacent to Corner Canyon Properties, said he also believes that to be the case. "The only thing I can think of right off hand is that there was some property out there we had loaned some money on, kind of as an investment kind of thing, in order to get a return for the money," Jensen said.
Other complaints about Draper Irrigation involve what some shareholders see as a secretive, behind-the-scenes approach to Corner Canyon and other issues.
"Basically, I think what people are irritated about is the lack of communication to the shareholders," said Draper Irrigation shareholder Mont Robbins. "We just want more information. . . . Water is money. Water is gold around here. "People who bought homes in (a neighboring) development were told it would be a watershed forever. Now they're proposing to develop 300 acres of the 1,000, and since we're in a drought, you know, we have a watershed for a purpose. Why are the watersheds valuable before and now they're not so valuable?"
Jensen said it was not Draper Irrigation but Christensen who told neighboring residents there would be no development around them. Christensen is the developer of the adjacent Steeplechase subdivision, and he has previously offered to buy Corner Canyon Properties' land for the purpose of developing it, according to Jensen.
"That's why he is trying to purchase the property, to preserve some of that" land he allegedly told residents would not be developed, Jensen said.
Christensen, however, said he has not offered to buy the land, nor did he promise anyone the canyon would not be developed. "They were trying to force me to buy it . . ." he said of Draper Irrigation. "I've never wanted their property. I've never needed it."
When he put his Steeplechase plans together in 2001, Christensen said he had meetings with Draper Irrigation and the company indicated it had no plans to develop its Corner Canyon property. A year later, he said, the company's board changed its mind and decided to develop the land.
But the number and width of roads in Christensen's subdivision, about half of which is now built, would not accommodate traffic into and out of Corner Canyon Properties.
In an attempt to remedy the situation, Corner Canyon Properties has sued Christensen's development company and the city over access to its property.
"If anybody even thinks about raising an objection, you're smeared and slandered all over the place," Christensen said of Draper Irrigation and its development plans. "They are trying to bully anyone and everyone, ignore the law, ignore the facts, ignore citizen opposition . . . to just steamroll their way through to get what they want. And they are surprised to find out that the citizens are outraged."
Hunt said the suit is necessary because the city failed to require Steeplechase to build its roads to the end of its property. He also said, based on city ordinances, Christensen should be required to build two access roads into the third phase of Steeplechase. If he only builds one road as now planned, access to Corner Canyon Properties' land would be effectively thwarted, Hunt said.
"The reality is that you can't develop" the land Corner Canyon Properties owns because of the city's actions, Hunt said.
Keck declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Corner Canyon Properties needs the Draper City Council to amend its general plan map, and also to rezone the land from agricultural to residential, before it — or another party that might purchase the land — could develop those 326 acres.
The request for a general plan map amendment will go before the Draper Planning Commission on April 8. But gaining any approvals from the city could be a tough go for Corner Canyon Properties.
"Preserving open space is certainly a component of our general plan and it's something the City Council is taking very seriously and really looking into all the alternatives at this point," said Draper spokesman Jeff Hymas. "There's already been a lot of homes built on the mountain and we don't want to see the great view that's been here forever disappear completely. And also, we want to be able to ensure that any hillside development fits within our general plan."
The ultimate number of homes to be included in Corner Canyon Properties' proposed development is not yet known, and would depend on city approvals.
"Any time you go to develop land, you try to get as much density as you possibly can, and sort of see what is possible," Jensen said.
Meanwhile, the state Division of Public Utilities is investigating Draper Irrigation to see if the company still qualifies for an exemption from regulation by the state Public Service Commission.
E-mail: zman@desnews.com