PROVO — What do the Speaker of the Utah House, a former Brigham Young University athletic director and a pair of lawsuits against Provo city have in common?

Speaker Greg Curtis and former BYU sports overseer Rondo Fehlberg are developers whose company, Anderson Development, has sued Provo twice for stopping the company's plans for a new subdivision in the southwest part of the city.

The issue comes before the council again tonight after four months of boiling up again like this summer's temperatures.

Anderson initially wanted to build 117 homes in a 34-acre area commonly called the Radio Station Property. The City Council said no in June 2005 and again in January 2006.

The company sued after both votes but hasn't sought a court hearing.

Instead, it is back with a new proposal: Fewer homes — nearly 40 percent fewer — on bigger lots. Everyone appears to agree the 72 larger homes, in the range of 3,000 square feet, would be good for the neighborhood and for Provo's family flight problem.

And building 72 homes instead of 117 would reduce the amount of traffic added to the only two routes out of this part of southwest Provo — 680 West and 1100 West. The drop in the number of homes represents a sizable compromise, Anderson Development partner Michael Hutchings said.

City Council member Midge Johnson represents the area and voted for Anderson Development's plans the first time the developers approached the city because she said it is inevitable that the property will become residential.

There are questions about the high water table and potential flooding in an area near Utah Lake wetlands and Provo Bay, but the main issue for Johnson and many neighbors is road access to the area.

Tonight's hearing could turn on that issue. The hearing isn't on whether to give the development a thumbs up or down, but whether to amend Provo's general plan to change the Radio Station Property designation on planning maps from agricultural to larger-lot residential.

The City Council appears ready to say yes, but approval would come over the figuratively dead bodies of the five members of the Provo Planning Commission, who voted 5-0 in June to recommend that the council deny the developer's request to change the land-use designation.

"Have we got new roads out there, yet?" Commissioner Roy Peterman said. "No. Until we get another access, such as a dike road or a belt route like the one that's being studied, it doesn't make sense to overload people traveling on streets without curb, gutter and sidewalks and an already overwhelming number of accidents."

Peterman criticized the City Council for bringing the issue back to the drawing board, saying the council is going through a back door to get the development approved on a fast track.