SPANISH FORK — City Council members in Spanish Fork voted unanimously Tuesday night to accept a preliminary plat for the proposed commercial development in the North Park area.

In the overall scheme of things, it was a small step for the project — city officials said the real "nuts and bolts" of the development would be addressed in the site plan proceedings in four to five weeks — but residents opposed to the idea attended the public hearing in what one called their last chance to speak out against the project.

A number of concerns raised by the 10 residents who spoke at the hearing have been raised multiple times in the past — some didn't like the new design proposed for the park facility, others were concerned with traffic.

But new issues were also raised Tuesday. Two residents expressed frustration over the southern portion of the project, which will be built to the southeast of North Park, to the east of 600 East on land the developer plans to purchase from Intermountain Health Care.

The southern portion was not originally included in the North Park proposal. Residents said its planned access points will overcrowd the narrow residential streets that will feed into it.

"Allow us citizens to have more time and information regarding the south portion," resident Kevin Payne asked. "We feel we've been cheated and shortchanged by the planning of this portion of the plat."

Other concerns were expressed by residents along 1000 North, which is the main road serving the North Park development. Those residents were initially told they would likely be able to continue parking on the street in front of their homes.

Tuesday, they were told that was no longer the case.

"We have to have the parking along this street," said resident Jay Birch. "We've degraded our property value enough with this development."

Engineers representing the developer, Westfield Properties, said 1000 North would have to be expanded to two lanes of travel in each direction plus a turn lane, leaving no room for parking on the street.

Council members asked Westfield to look at options to help those residents, either by making one lane on the south side available for parking at off-peak hours or working a deal with incoming retailers to allow those residents to use their parking lots.

Westfield spokesman Richard Mendenhall attended the meeting to address the concerns raised. When some residents said the city should say no to this development and wait for other developers, Mendenhall explained some advantages of developing the land all at once.

"If it goes up piecemeal, you have to deal with the issues that arise as each piece comes in," he said. "By developing it all at once, you can deal with the issues in one shot."