Growth in western Davis and Weber counties has brought in new business opportunities

That sage advice from a New York newspaper publisher 145 years ago is still true today in Davis and Weber counties.

First homeowners and now businesses have moved westward out of the long-established cities tucked alongside the Wasatch Front and tamed the wild frontier, which really was never too wild once it was broken by the settlers' plows in the 1800s.

Cities have sprung from rural communities that just a generation ago were vegetable fields and cattle lots, and as they mature from a scattered collection of residential subdivisions into organized, complete entities, the process presents special challenges to city leaders.

How do they balance competing interests, such as the desire to provide services for residents versus the desire to remain a rural community with a slower pace of life? How do they provide infrastructure to make their city a desirable place to live and work? And most important, how do they pay for it all?

Commercial and retail growth "follows the rooftops," said Kent J. Sulser, director of Davis County Community and Economic Development. "We've seen that happen in Clinton, which has seen huge growth in its commercial sector. As the number of rooftops has grown, so has its retail development."

According to U.S. Census figures from 2007, Clinton has grown from 12,585 in 2000 to 19,571, a number sure to pass 20,000 when the 2010 census is reported. Syracuse also will be past 20,000, having started the decade at 9,398. Farther north in Weber County, the former farm communities of Farr West and West Haven have added thousands: Farr West grew from 3,094 to 5,129 in the 2007 report and West Haven rose from 3,976 to 6,106.

Those kind of growth figures are sure to attract merchants eager to serve in an area where there is little competition. And city officials are anxious to attract retail and commercial growth, because the cost of meeting the demands of residential growth is more than the revenue that all those rooftops produce, Sulser said.

"When cities look to balance their budgets, they first look to retail growth because the sales tax revenues look so good when times are good," Sulser said. "But retail sales are cyclical, and those sales tax revenues can go down very quickly. That's when cities look to the next tier of development, commercial growth."

He cites the Cost of Community Services Study done by the Farmland Information Center of Northampton, Mass., which found every dollar of revenue produced by residential growth actually costs the city $1.19 in services provided.

"How long can your city government function when you have numbers like that, if all you have is residential growth?" he said.

Each dollar of revenue from commercial and industrial property costs the city just 28 cents for services provided, the COCS survey found, and working and open lands (mostly farms) cost 36 cents to service per dollar of revenue.

Sulser has a kindred spirit in Farr West Mayor Jimmie Papageorge, whose city had fewer than 1,000 people when it was incorporated in 1981. With the population more than five times that number now, he wants to expand the city's tax base to ease the pressure on the budget.

"We're pushing as hard as we can to get commercial businesses," Papageorge said. "We're not pushing for any more residential growth. We've got plenty of subdivisions, and homes just aren't selling right now."

Farr West's efforts are helped considerably by its being at the crossroads of 2700 North, 2000 West and Interstate 15, so thousands of vehicles pass through the city every day.

The I-15 off-ramp has spurred significant commercial growth in the last decade, with its mix of convenience stores and fast-food restaurants being recently joined by a Comfort Inn hotel.

"We'd like to see a couple of sit-down restaurants in that area to complement the hotel," Papageorge said.

Farr West also is well-positioned for growth because, nearly 30 years ago, a full sewer system was installed and is now fully paid for, he said.

City officials anticipated that development would come, so the system was built big enough to accommodate more users than were available at the time.

"Having the sewer system and secondary water in place has helped draw development, because it made construction costs so much cheaper," Papageorge said.

West Haven is also anxious to attract more commercial growth, "but it's got to be the right businesses coming into the right places," said Mayor Brian Melaney.

The city is bisected by 1900 West, the main north-south highway through west Weber County, and has a significant amount of commercial-industrial growth that was in place when West Haven was incorporated as a city in 1991.

"We try to treat our industrial businesses well, but companies are still looking to western Weber County for these uses, because we've become more residential and want to stay that way," Melaney said.

He touts the Metropolitan Theatres Corp. 45,000-square-foot megaplex theater that's being built at 4000 South and Midland Drive as the kind of development that would benefit the city. People will enjoy having movies available closer to home, and the theater will attract other businesses such as restaurants to serve moviegoers.

"We are in a unique position because the people in the communities around us have to go through our city to get to where they are going, so our plan is for development to be more regional in nature," Melaney said.

He believes there's great potential for more growth in the 21st Street corridor, along 1900 West and along Midland Drive, which Utah Department of Transportation has scheduled for improvements, although the plans have changed several times in recent years.

Most people aren't aware of just how much ground West Haven covers, Melaney said.

"In terms of buildable ground, we are the second-largest city in Weber County," he said. "With the zoning we have in place now, we could be at 35,000 to 40,000 people at buildout and still not be as congested as the cities in Davis County."

Sitting out the space race

Plain City is not joining the commercial space race. Sitting in the northwest corner of Weber County means that no one goes through the city to get to anywhere else, said Mayor Jay Jenkins.

"We are not trying to attract commercial growth. I ran for mayor on a platform of keeping Plain City as a bedroom community," Jenkins said.

Farr West and Marriott-Slaterville will do a good job growing the businesses needed by people in the west county area "because 2000 West and the interstate are natural conduits that will attract commercial development."

Commercial growth brings "a demand for services that far outstrips the tax benefits," Jenkins said, and carries intangible costs that impact the lifestyle that people expect in Plain City. "There's a higher crime rate that comes with retail businesses, and a need for higher-density housing than what we have here."

That way of thinking conflicts with the numbers produced in the COCS study, which found residential services cost more than the revenue produced.

"When a community makes the decision to stay rural, there's nothing wrong with that at all," said Marlin Eldred, an economic development specialist with Davis County Community and Economic Development. "But sooner or later someone is going to have to pick up the bill, either through higher property taxes or a decision to utilize other land uses, such as commercial or industrial development."

Roads

Jenkins believes his city can stay small and rural because it's off the beaten track, but that may not last.

"If they ever build the North Legacy Highway, that could change all our plans," he saids.

The highway is only in the discussion phase now, but the goal is to first extend it through northwest Davis County and then through west Weber County up to Smith and Edwards, opening up Hooper, Plain City and a large section of unincorporated county land.

Jenkins hopes if that is built, the road would be on the west edge of the city.

"That would create a natural corridor for a commercial park and other business zones," Jenkins said.

UDOT also is considering extending State Road 193, also known as Hill Field Road, to 2000 West in Davis County. The road would curve to the north around the Freeport Center then enter Clinton in an area that's now mostly fields, Sulser said.

"The road would then provide east-west access from the western county to Interstate 15 and Highway 89," he said.

Some of the property will be used for residential growth but land also will be available for commercial, such as offices, distribution and retail.

An expanded SR 193 will be even more important because of the major developments happening beside Hill Air Force Base, the East Gate and Falcon Hill parks. These 550-acre developments, each two-thirds the size of downtown Salt Lake City, are expected to be the home of high-tech research and development firms that will provide thousands of high-paying jobs to sustain the local economy through the next century.

"Where will all those people want to live?" Sulser said. "With improved transportation access, Clinton becomes a preferred area."

Wish lists

Clinton has already reached a stage of maturity that its Weber County counterparts are still waiting to achieve. It has a big-box store (Wal-Mart), and a grocery store is being built on the city border with Roy, but residents want more.

"If they could get a theater here, they'd love it," Sulser says. Residents want to be able to enjoy a complete lifestyle in their own city, with shopping, services, recreation and even jobs.

What would really please the people of Farr West is a grocery store, Papageorge said. "We want to see a grocery store out here in the worst way," he said.

"Right now, everybody drives through Farr West to get to Ogden or Harrisville, and it would be a big thing for the people to be able to shop here and save the time they spend driving elsewhere."

That could be in the works. Coldwell Banker Real Estate has a contract on 78 acres just off 2700 North at 2000 West, the so-called Randall Farm property, which the company is marketing as a big-box store complex complete with space for a department store, a grocery store, restaurants, banks and retail sales.