Draper residents protest project

DRAPER — City residents filled City Hall for a Planning Commission meeting Thursday night to protest a development that many say is the latest in what could be a series of broken promises by city officials.

After more than two hours of public comment, the commission postponed action on the development until its Sept. 9 meeting.

The proposed development, which is at 900 E. Highland Drive, would be called Montclair Village and would put 200 townhomes and apartments on an 11.6-acre lot originally slated for a town center with retail and open space.

Developer Douglas Lowe said much of that open space would be preserved, but commercial development would be eliminated from the plan.

Low said although his proposal would increase the density in the area, it would be less intense than the commercial town center previously planned.

The original plan that residents were presented with when they bought their homes was that the area would feature an arc of retail stores with City Hall in the middle.

Jeff Hodges, a member of the area's homeowners association, said that promise led residents to believe they were buying into a walkable community lifestyle with the convenient town center.

"This is not about residential vs. commercial," Hodges said. "This is about the heart and soul of the community we bought into being erased and wiped out in a single blow."

Many residents agreed with Hodges and told commission members that the development would lower home values, increase traffic and deny them the type of community they were promised.

Alysha Witzel, 23, broke into tears as she told community members how her expensive valley view would be blocked by the development.

"We scrimped and saved to buy this house; I don't want to have to move," she said.

Gordon Holt, president of a neighboring homeowner association, said the main concern of residents is that Draper's South Mountain is already saturated with townhomes and apartments.

As more such high-density developments are approved by the City Council, he said, residents are starting to band together against city decisions.

"The whole mountain is getting in an uproar," he said. "They're going to rise up and fight it."