New census estimates released Wednesday reveal that 10 Utah cities have doubled their populations — or more — since the 2000 Census. Saratoga Springs in western Utah County has outpaced them all, growing 14-fold since then, from 1,162 residents in 2000 to 16,053 in 2008.
"We're a new city. A group of landowners who wanted to develop their land incorporated in 1997 — so there was nothing here then," says city manager Ken Leetham. "When you go from essentially nothing to 16,000, the percentage looks really big, But we're still a small concern."
That "small concern" could change, however, as the city is projecting growing to a population of maybe 75,000 to 85,000 by 2030 — which could even put it among the top 10 largest cities in the state by then.
It is just one example of phenomenal growth in recent years among what had been smaller, somewhat remote suburbs in Utah.
For example, four neighbors of Saratoga Springs in northern Utah County were among the 10 cities that at least doubled in size since 2000. Eagle Mountain grew by 805 percent; Cedar Hills by 206 percent; Lehi by 142 percent; and Highland by 102 percent.
Suburbs elsewhere where populations doubled or more included: Herriman, 683 percent; Syracuse, 131 percent; Washington (near St. George), 116 percent; Nibley (near Logan), 113 percent; and West Haven (near Ogden), 110 percent.
Why such growth in the once out-of-the-way suburbs?
"People tell me they move here because they love the view and they like the idea of getting out of the city," Leetham said about Saratoga Springs, which is on the western shores of Utah Lake. Most residents commute to either the Provo-Orem or Salt Lake metro areas.
"People like the lake. The housing market is more reasonably priced here versus the east side," he added. Leetham said keeping up with increasing demands for water, sewer, power and roads has been a challenge with that fast growth. "But we've kept ahead of things, mostly depending on developers to provide them."
The booming population there also just attracted a new Wal-Mart, several shopping centers, a new high school, an under-construction middle school and three elementary schools into what were nothing but fields a decade ago.
Nearby Eagle Mountain, west of Saratoga Springs in Cedar Valley, is even bigger than Saratoga Springs with an estimated population of 22,309, up from a 2000 population of 2,464. That is a nine-fold increase.
"But because we all have to drive through Saratoga Springs, most of the new stores and businesses are located there," so they can serve both communities, said Eagle Mountain city administrator John Hendrickson.
"But we are starting to see real interest in firms that could develop out here and provide real jobs. ... Land is less expensive, and we are still near to the Salt Lake metro area."
He said Eagle Mountain, which is 50 square miles in size, has the land to someday support a population of 200,000 people — or more than present-day Salt Lake City.
"When you're growing 20 or 30 percent a year, like we had been, it was a challenge to keep up with water, power, gas and other demands," he said. "Some years, we had to limit water use in the summer" if a well had problems.
But Hendrickson said a silver lining from the current recession is that slower growth allowed the city to catch up with demands, and, for example, solve problems with water supply by obtaining additional sources.
The new census estimates released Wednesday show no change from last year in the rank order of Utah's Top 10 largest cities.
Salt Lake City was No. 1 with 181,698 residents. The others were; 2. West Valley City, 123,447; 3. Provo, 118,581; 4. West Jordan, 104,447; 5. Sandy, 96,660; 6. Orem, 93,250; 7. Ogden, 82,865; 8. St. George, 72,718; 9. Layton, 65,514; and 10. Taylorsville, 58,785.
Some of those Top 10 cities had virtually no growth since 2000. Salt Lake City, for example, lost an estimated 75 people for virtually no change. Taylorsville gained just 68 or so people, for an estimated increase of 0.1 percent. (Population data for all 243 towns and cities in Utah is online at deseretnews.com).
In sheer numbers — not percentage — Lehi has had the greatest growth of any Utah city since the 2000 Census, growing by an estimated 27,421 people through July 1, 2008.
Other cities with large increases in sheer numbers include: West Jordan, 25,735; St. George, 25,735; South Jordan, 21,694; Eagle Mountain, 19,845; Draper, 17,101; Herriman, 15,430; and Saratoga Springs, 14,891.
The cities with the largest one-year numerical growth between 2007 and 2008 included: South Jordan, 3,085 people; Lehi, 3,048; Eagle Mountain, 2,419; and Salt Lake City, 2,265 (which helped it recover from earlier population losses in recent years).
New estimates show that Salt Lake City is the nation's 125th largest city. West Valley City is the nation's 197th largest. Provo ranks No. 209 and West Jordan ranks No. 246. They are the only Utah cities with populations greater than 100,000, and among 273 cities nationally that have at least that many residents.
On the other end of the spectrum, tiny Scofield in Carbon County is the state's smallest town with an estimated population of just 26. Right behind it is Ophir in Tooele County with a population of 28.
Others that round out the list of 10 smallest towns and cities in Utah are: Bryce Canyon City (Garfield County), 59; Antimony (Garfield), 114; Hatch (Garfield), 118; Lynndyl (Millard), 120; Brian Head (Iron), 127; Kingston (Piute), 136; Cannonville (Garfield), 138; and Alton (Kane), 140.
E-MAIL: lee@desnews.com