WILLARD -- After almost a year of negotiations and several public hearings, the city council has approved a planned unit development that has plans for both a school and a church.
One of the selling points for the 96.98-acre development -- a parcel known as Willard Estates, at 650 S. 824 West -- is the promise that a school will be built there.
Developer Doug Young said he will donate land in the development to the Box Elder School District for building a school.
Currently, the Willard school houses only kindergarten and first-grade students. Every day, 250 students are bused to Three Mile Creek Elementary in Perry.
Corey Shupe, the architectural designer for the PUD, said he has talked with school district officials, who liked the donation at the north end of the development.
"It is closer to Perry and more centrally located than the school district property in South Willard," Shupe said.
City Planner Jay Aguilar said the purpose of a planned unit development is to give flexibility to the developer while at the same time giving amenities such as parks and trails to the community.
Originally, the PUD was planned to house 380 residential lots with some cluster homes and multifamily units, with lot sizes around 4,000 square feet. At a previous public hearing, community residents were concerned about the small lot size, so the developer changed the plans.
Now, the lot size is now no smaller than 10,000 square feet and there are no plans for cluster homes or multifamily units.
"Basically, they are giving us less than two homes per acre," Aguilar said.
The trade-off for the lesser density lot size is that the city will get fewer amenities.
Mayor Ryan Tingey said if city officials chose to not have the PUD but rather rezoned the entire area into residential half-acre lots, the entire area would be homes.
"We would not get open space, trails, schools, etc.," he said.
Both Aguilar and City Engineer Scott Archibald said the developer has met all of the city's requirements.
"The staff provided 45 revisions, and they provided answers to all 45 revisions," Aguilar said.
Before each phase of the development begins, the developer will provide a cash bond upfront to pay for water impact and connection fees.
Tingey said the city has ample water to allow for the project and that the impact fees would be used to upgrade the city's storage capacity.
"This development will put not financial impact upon the current Willard residents."
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