Proposed development for Centerville gets tax-proposal approval from Davis School District board

FARMINGTON — The curtain has fallen on one stage of the development of a movie theater complex in Centerville. The next major scene will be the groundbreaking.

Developers of the Legacy Crossing mixed-use project on Tuesday received approval from the Davis School District board on a tax proposal enabling them to advance the project. The board was the final taxing entity that needed to sign off on ceding some of the property taxes that would be collected at the site over the next 15 years.

Construction will begin after some formalizing of legal documents to get financing and approval of a specific site plan by the city.

"We'll work through that and hopefully be good to go. In the next 30 to 60 days, we hope to be in the ground," Dan Bridenstine, managing partner with development group Legacy Crossing LLC, said after the unanimous board vote.

Two board members, Walt Bain and L. Burke Larsen, were critical of the tax plan at a July work session. But Bain was out of town Tuesday, and Larsen did not speak during the meeting.

Bridenstine said he spent time showing some board members the economic benefits of the project and acknowledged that developers should have brought the matter to the board earlier.

"I don't have any criticism at all for them," he said. "They were just trying to get answers to questions."

Tuesday's approval, and earlier ones by other entities, will enable the development group to put infrastructure in place for the 28-acre Legacy Crossing development between I-15 and Legacy Parkway. Among various taxing entities, $5.4 million will be forgone, including about $3.2 million from the school district.

Developers say that money would be used for infrastructure improvements needed not just for Legacy Crossing, but for 90 acres between the highway exchanges and for a 530-acre area west of Legacy Parkway that's available for development. A 90-acre area that contains the Legacy Crossing proposal is mostly vacant and yields $109,000 annually in property taxes for the district. That would rise to $566,000 annually five years into the development, and $789,000 annually after the 15 years.

Bridenstine has said financing would not be available — and the project would stall — without the tax relief for the Parrish-Legacy Crossing Community Development Agency.