Plan would turn Geneva site into urban area

VINEYARD, Utah County — More than 2,000 acres of land lie vacant between I-15 and Utah Lake in this small community, but a new plan for the town's future could change that.

The Geneva Urban Renewal Project Area Plan would remediate 2,055 acres — most of them at the former Geneva Steel site — for commercial, industrial and residential development. The plan spans 40 years and includes three lake activity areas, several new roads, an intermodal hub, 11.1 million square feet of commercial development and enough residential zoning to build more than 7,500 homes.

Vineyard Mayor Randy Farnworth said the plan would bring substantial economic growth and higher tax revenues to the community.

"We're starting a town that basically has no infrastructure at all," Farnworth said. "You can imagine (how) getting that additional revenue … will help it grow faster than it is."

The development is projected to raise property values to as much as four times the amount they were when the Geneva Steel was in operation and expand the town's tax base by attracting new businesses.

Vineyard and Anderson Geneva LLC, which owns most of the project area, worked together to create a plan for development that reflected the wants of both the community and the company, said Vineyard town planner Nathan Crane.

"We worked very closely to develop the master plan and the zoning, not only to focus on what the town's vision was, but also to incorporate the property owners' (vision), too," Crane said. "It's really going to be a partnership between the town and whoever owns the property, whether it's Anderson Geneva or someone else in the future."

Before any development happens, however, the project area must be cleaned up. While some portions of the Geneva site have been remediated and even developed, much of the area has not. Some deteriorating steel structures remain on the property, and much of the land is heavily contaminated.

Anderson Geneva estimates it will cost between $100 million and $300 million to remediate the site, depending on how the land is zoned. The plan's budget calls for $300 million, which will go toward building infrastructure, helping property owners remediate as much land as possible and providing tax incentives to businesses.