Herriman Council OKs annexation

HERRIMAN — It only took a few minutes for Herriman's City Council to unanimously approve a massive land annexation Tuesday night that could someday triple the city's anticipated population.

As a result of Tuesday's decision, 8-year-old Herriman will quickly bump its borders to be 50 percent bigger starting in January 2008, with a 4,000-acre addition that's been a longtime coming. The city's borders will stretch all the way to Redwood Road, across land that used to belong to Bluffdale.

"It is hard to imagine that there will be a gateway from Redwood Road into Herriman," said City Councilwoman Raquel DeLuca, who was one of three council members to attend the special council meeting Tuesday night. "This really is an opportunity. It's exciting."

DeLuca said the city's estimated population at build-out used to be about 25,000 people. But with the addition of the 4,000-acre, master-planned community project, DeLuca guessed the city will likely reach 75,000 people at build-out. She also pointed out that, although people move to the secluded western suburb "for a reason," the development that will take place as a result of the annexation is already well-planned.

The resulting community will have some high- and low-density housing and commercial and industrial areas, which weren't a possibility in Bluffdale. Herriman Mayor Lynn Crane said he appreciates the "partnership" the city has formed with the developers in working on this project.

"Some have seen it as a capitulation on the part of Herriman to the development community, but I think that is nowhere near what has happened," Crane said of the city's involvement with the annexation.

The 4,000-acre annexation is the result of cooperation between The Sorenson Group, which developed Rosecrest in Herriman, and several limited liability companies managed by development group DAI. The developers worked together in organizing their exodus from Bluffdale and enduring years of litigation with the city that ultimately went to the Utah Supreme Court.

According to James Lee Sorenson, CEO of The Sorenson Group, the project has been in limbo since 1995, testing the patience of those involved with the land. A major chunk of the project is designed to be congruous with its other half — the Rosecrest development in Herriman — but Sorenson says the group didn't initially want to leave Bluffdale and join Herriman.