Is paving paradise progress?

STANSBURY PARK — Here is what you'll see today if you stop by Kathie Shepherd's historic rock house on U-138:

Tall Chinese elm trees teeming with songbirds, white pelicans lounging on the dock next to a bubbling warm springs and the Great Salt Lake shimmering in the sun beneath Stansbury Island.

It is one of the most spectacular views in Tooele County, but it's now about to change. This summer, bulldozers will roll in to dig up the fields and wetlands and put a subdivision of 150 homes on property owned by a housing developer.

Tourists who stop every year to visit the historic 152-year-old Benson Grist Mill adjacent to Kathie's house will soon be gazing out at duplexes instead of ducks and empty fields, and that sickens Kathie.

"I've tried everything I can think of to stop this thing from going in," she says, "but they're determined to build it. The only option now is a lawsuit."

It's been 17 years since Kathie and her family moved into the charming rock home built in 1852 by E.T. Benson, the grandfather of late LDS Church President Ezra Taft Benson. In that time, there have been some big changes in Tooele County, namely the arrival of affordable housing and thousands of new residents.

But few people dreamed that the rich corridor next to the grist mill would be developed, says Kathie. Not with its sandy soil, wildlife refuge and beautiful landscape.

Hoping to share the importance of holding onto one of Tooele County's most distinctive assets, Kathie, 60, invited me to join her for a Free Lunch of takeout chicken kabobs and salad at the quaint home she shares with her daughter, Karabeth, and 5-month-old granddaughter, Sunny.

Sitting beneath one of the stately elms in her spacious yard, she feeds Sunny a bottle of milk and looks out at the postcard view.

"When I was growing up," she says, "I always dreamed of owning a place like this. My dad was in the Air Force and I never had a place to call home. This beautiful place has helped me heal from a turbulent childhood. It's given me roots."

Kathie and other Stansbury Park residents pleaded with Tooele County commissioners not to allow the controversial housing development to happen, but the commission gave its final approval to the project last month. Now builders are set to arrive any day, and Kathie's only option is a lawsuit to get the development postponed or reversed.