HOOPER — When La Grande Belnap used to gaze southwest of his home, he'd enjoy the view of a large dairy farm, a green-grass reminder of his hometown, a rural burg that at one time counted as many cows and horses as residents.

But the small-town charm of this formerly quiet, picket-fence community that borders the Great Salt Lake is beginning to fade as acres of former farmland are rapidly being turned into rows of large stone-and-stucco homes.

A $12 million sewer system is being installed through the east side of town, replacing septic tanks. Installation of those lines could lead to rapid construction and more-houses-per-acre building in Hooper, largely because the high water table won't be such a limiting factor. Until work started, Hooper, which is surrounded by wetlands on three sides, had been the largest unsewered city in Utah.

To some of the residents, one of the signs that the face of Hooper had started to change was when the dairy farm, operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a fixture along the town's 5900 West since the 1940s, shut down.

The farm had been rented by a local farmer for a while, but in 2005 was replaced by an LDS chapel and a large residential subdivision.

"It bothered me when the church gave up the stake farm," said Belnap, 82, a Hooper resident since 1933. "All the hard work and labor that went into that. To see it go for housing, that was shocking to me."

He said the roads are busier these days, especially during rush hours. And there is more noise, the kind that comes with more homes, more people, more cars.

"I guess it's just a sign of the times," he said. "We knew the growth was coming."

In pioneer days, Hooper was known as Muskrat Springs for an artesian well where the critters were plentiful. The area was also used as part of the Weber Herd Ground for cattle, and herdsmen built Hooper's first house, a two-story abode, back in 1854.

Many homes have been built since, and many more are planned.

So fearful was a vandal of Hooper's continuing growth that he caused $50,000 damage to sewer pipes last year to try to halt their installation.

Others joke that the "Hooper sewer sucks," since Hooper's sewer will be Utah's first vacuum sewer system. The fee to hook up for each resident, if paid on time, was $809.

However, now the impact fee is $2,333 through the Central Weber Sewer System. (That doesn't include the cost for also taking a sewer line from the street to a household). Residents will pay $38 a month for sewer service.

Hooper's population is estimated to be almost 6,000, according to the Wasatch Front Regional Council. That's up from an estimated 4,700 when Hooper incorporated seven years ago.