Luxury-homes project draws criticism

COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — Sent back to the Planning Commission for reconsideration, a controversial luxury home site is once again drawing concerns from residents.

Arbor Development owner John Gust is asking Cottonwood Heights for a zone change on the 150-unit Meadows Mobile Home Park, a 19.7-acre piece of property he bought in August.

Residents of the mobile home park have been protesting the sale and development of their home sites. But now that the deal is complete, construction begins in a few months and people are clearing out of the park — and their comments have died down.

Now, neighbors in the rural area are speaking up about the design of the project, which will include 29-31 homes of various sizes.

"We've been striving to find the middle ground," Cottonwood Heights Mayor Kelvyn Cullimore said. "Anything that's done is an improvement of the eight units per acre on the mobile home park."

Officials with Arbor have met with neighbors to talk about three conceptual design plans. Preliminary renderings show homes facing into each other and out toward the street, and a third shows a wall surrounding the perimeter of the development.

The latter, Gust said, has been the most popular with neighbors. A landscaped walkway would border the wall and a park would sit at the entrance.

"We felt like it would be better as a neighborhood that the wall was there, not necessarily to separate, but for more of a togetherness for the neighborhood being proposed," said Margo Cowley, who lives west of the site.

However, most residents who spoke at the public hearing Tuesday night said a wall would segregate the development from the rest of the community.

"If by chance Mr. Gust gets his zoning approved, the possibility of him doing the fence would impact me immensely, and my children. I don't want to live across the street from a thousand feet of fence," said Paula Rutter, a 25-year resident whose home abuts the mobile home park.

"The bottom line here is we live in a unique area. There's not a lot of these areas around and Utah notoriously wants to put a lot on an acre."

The city's Planning Commission denied Arbor's original zoning request in October. It asked for the million-dollar homes to be built on half-acre lots. The City Council and staff are now proposing that Arbor go back to the Planning Commission with a new rural residential zone calling for a home on every three-quarters of an acre.