COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — Some residents in Cottonwood Heights are organizing and laying out plans for a battle over a new office development, where they claim a developer is not living up to past promises.
The Cottonwood Corporate Center, which was built in the 1990s, is looking to expand its office space. Developer John West plans to build two buildings, one six stories high, the other four stories high.
But numerous homes sit alongside the future site of the office space.
Robin Bateman, who has lived in the privacy of her Cottonwood Heights home for nearly 18 years, is upset because the office development would look straight down into her house.
"This is the master bedroom, and it directly overlooks the area where the buildings will be built," she said.
She says she never would have bought her home had she known a four-story building would be going up behind her home.
"We were promised both verbally and in site plans and lots of documents that these buildings would be one and two story," she said. "Now they're proposed to be four and six."
Calls to West for comment were not immediately returned.
Cottonwood Heights Mayor Kelvyn Cullimore is sympathetic, but he doesn't believe the city has the right to stop it. He says the developer has expressed willingness to mitigate the neighbors' concerns.
"They are entitled to build up to 250,000 square feet of space," Cullimore said. "They would like to build that amount of space and that will require some height on the buildings."
He adds that perhaps there is some middle ground upon which both sides can find a compromise.
"I think the developer recognizes the impacts, and I think they're willing to try to mitigate those," Cullimore said. "And I think our best bet is to try to work together to try to find those mitigation."
Bateman said several residents are gathering news reports from the 1990s and other documents to show that there was, in fact a promise to construct low-profile buildings. They also have started raising funds for a possible court battle.
E-mail: hollenhorst@desnews.com