New Home Depot rekindles debate

As a controversial Home Depot store opens for business in Millcreek, Utahns expressed mixed opinions about the impact of big-box stores on the state's economy.

The Millcreek Home Depot, 3398 S. Highland, opens for business today, capping a hard-fought battle that took to the County Council and the courts.

"Just to be clear, we were not anti-Home Depot," said Dina Blaes, a vocal critic of the project. "We were anti-100,000-square-foot big box in our neighborhood."

Blaes helped marshal a small group of opponents against Salt Lake County through to its Board of Adjustment and then, with Home Depot as an interested third party, in 3rd District Court. If the project could not be stopped, the group believed, it could be improved, and the group eventually won concessions and changes such as additional parking and landscaping.

Today, the Millcreek Home Depot opens for business, and company spokeswoman Kathryn Gallagher said all expectations point to "business as usual."

"Sometimes, in the initial planning process, we do come against some opposition, for various reasons," Gallagher said. "In the instance of the east Salt Lake property, we did encounter a small group opposed to the location of the store. We think we came to a good resolution, a good agreement."

The store, at about 90,000 square feet, plus additional space for a garden center, is smaller than the average Home Depot. Blaes would have liked an even smaller store. But, she said, now that it's opening all hopes are that it is successful.

"The outcome was not what we had hoped, but it's here now, and I just hope it doesn't go dark in five years and leave us with a huge, empty skeleton of a building," she said.

Blaes also said she hopes the Millcreek experience will raise the level of public debate about the impact of big-box stores — not just in her neighborhood but across the state. There are "systemic" tax issues, she said, along with land use and development issues — all of which impact the way Utah's communities are evolving.

"This issue is so much bigger than this one Home Depot," she said. "It's everywhere. It's in Sandy, Centerville, everywhere. And it's a really tough thing, because every community wants new development. The tax base is critical, and everybody realizes that."

Rod Dunn, owner of Millcreek Pharmacy & Hardware, said he is concerned that mega-retailers are beginning to saturate the Wasatch Front.

"We've already had the hit from the Home Depot closest to here (in Ft. Union)," Dunn said. "They'll probably compete with themselves more than anything."