Liahona zoning woes at an end?

PLEASANT GROVE — A private school that caters to a Latter-day Saint clientele may have found an answer to a land-zoning problem that vexed plans to build a new schoolhouse.

Officials at Liahona Academy were upset to learn when they started planning for the new school that the land is in a part of the city zoned to accommodate sexually oriented businesses.

After all, academy leaders don't want a strip joint for a neighbor.

A solution may be on the near horizon, however.

Pleasant Grove's City Council will vote tonight on whether to approve the annexation of property — a parcel of which will be traded to Liahona Academy — near the Gateway development into Pleasant Grove.

The vote will be made during a 7 p.m. meeting at City Hall, 86 E. 100 South.

If the annexation is approved, the LDS-themed school will break ground in an area not too far from their original location yet far enough away from the part of the city where sexually oriented businesses can operate.

The compromise satisfies school owner Kolleen DeGraff. But if the annexation is denied, it's back to the drawing board, said Mayor Michael Daniels.

"The council needs to consider the annexation in light of ordinances that are currently in place and weigh the magnitude of all of the decisions affected by that approval or denial," Daniels said. "I think the proposal on the table for the school and for the land owners is a four-way win. It's a win for the landowners, it's a win for the school and it would certainly be a win for the city."

Early last week, Daniels called a meeting with Liahona Academy officials; Brad Myler, who owns the property on which Liahona first planned to build; and Wayne Corbridge, president of Trophy Homes.

Daniels knew Corbridge wanted to annex his land, which is in an unincorporated part of Utah County, into Pleasant Grove's boundaries.

He hadn't been able to do so because the property didn't meet the requirements for a balanced ratio between residential capacity and commercial property.

"There's very little of our property that is commercially viable," Corbridge said. "It's not economically feasible to have half of our project be commercial. But by doing this land trade, between that and some office buildings that we're going to build, it will be enough commercial to satisfy (the city's) requirement."