Dividing Alpine costly for Lehi

AMERICAN FORK — Some say that a good education is priceless.

But that doesn't mean the proposed Pioneer School District in northern Utah County would be cheap — especially for Lehi taxpayers.

It also wouldn't be easy.

"It would be messy. It wouldn't be smooth. That's one thing we can predict," said David Lifferth, an Eagle Mountain accountant, whose city would be within the new district.

The proposed district would cover the area within the Lehi High School boundaries. That includes Lehi, Eagle Mountain, Saratoga Springs and some unincorporated areas of Cedar Valley. More than 1,200 people in those areas signed a petition to create the new district.

Lifferth and other members of the ad hoc committee charged with studying the feasibility of splitting the Alpine School District — currently the fourth largest in the state with nearly 60,000 students — listened to a presentation Tuesday by Brigham Young University graduate students about the financial impact of dividing the district.

Their findings showed that property tax rates in Lehi — and the neighboring cities and unincorporated county areas to the west — in 2010 would be 90 percent higher in the proposed Pioneer District than they would be if the current Alpine District boundaries, which includes all of Utah County from Orem northward, remained intact.

If the district does split, however, the remaining Alpine District area is expected to benefit from property rates in 2010 that would be 17 percent lower than if there is no division.

While that may be goods news for taxpayers in the more upscale areas of the Alpine District who have complained about paying to support a district filled with Lehi children, the cost of creating an independent district might be too much for many residents in the Lehi area.

Homes in that area, on average, sell for $36,000 less than a comparable home in Alpine. As a result, families with lower incomes have been flocking to Lehi, bringing children with them.

There are also few commercial businesses in Lehi, and those located nearby — like Thanksgiving Point and Micron — are able to use their property taxes to pay back grants from the city's Redevelopment Agency.

"You are shoving the burden off on a predominately residential area," said Janice Houston, a faculty adviser for BYU's Marriott School of Management.