Plans for Aspen are still under way

MIDWAY — Despite a petition in the works that could stop Aspen, Utah, in its ski tracks, developer Dean Sellers and his planners continued the sales pitch Monday to a group of local government and business leaders.

Sellers, originally from Arizona, where he was a residential developer for 35 years, is making his first attempt at building a town, which he wants to name Aspen.

Sellers' dream is to build a world-class town in the mountains with an accompanying ski resort and 18-hole golf course.

The 8,366-acre area of Wasatch County Sellers wants to incorporate into his town would have qualified for incorporation if area residents hadn't filed a petition to annex into the nearby town of Daniel.

Residents of three subdivisions in Sellers proposed boundaries, led by Kasey and Heather Bateman, filed three petitions between the first week of October and the first week of November to stop Sellers. The third petition was the charm, said Heather Bateman.

Annexation was the only loophole in HB466, which relaxed the requirements for incorporation, Bateman said she and her neighbors could find.

Utah law states that if an annexation petition is pending, it trumps an incorporation petition that includes the same area.

And if it's approved, it will eliminate most of the residents in the three subdivisions — Storm Haven, Tammy Lane and Crazy Acres — Sellers needs for his minimum population requirements.

The Batemans' petition was filed with Daniel the morning of Nov. 8, and Sellers' petition to incorporate was filed with Wasatch County that afternoon.

The Batemans' managed to swing a few residents who originally signed Sellers' petition onto their side and withdraw their support from Aspen.

And it's not because they are anti-development. said neighbor Angie Gustin, who signed the petition to annex into Daniel.

"I'm not saying it won't be a beautiful, wonderful thing," she said. "I don't know what (his) plan is."

Sellers' master planners, the Jack Johnson Company, said they need an incorporation before they master plan the town.

Ideally, said project manager Brad Johnson, he could begin master planning the community in January and then break ground by 2009.

"There are still many studies and much research that needs to be done," he said.

Johnson said his team will investigate the needs of residents to figure out how to bring in schools, churches and parks.

"We still plan to gather data," he said, adding that his team will order aerial photos and environmental and technical studies.