Utah County may get paper plant

ELBERTA — A new Utah County zone that allows for growth including industrial, commercial, office and residential may have an early taker with a huge paper factory.

"This has been in the mill for some time," County Commissioner Larry Ellerton said Tuesday.

However, county officials are tight-lipped over the name of the paper company, which includes toilet paper among its products. They said it is an East Coast company and is making overtures for a Western operation with access to a rail line, natural gas, water and power, all of which the acreage near Elberta has.

"They wanted it shovel-ready by April," Utah County Planning Commission Chairman Dean Miner said.

County commissioners created the new Planned Community Zone two weeks ago on the heels of setting up a specific area plan, or master plan, on both sides of Redwood Road and north and south of U.S. 6 encompassing some 50,000 acres in the Goshen Valley. The two largest landowners are The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Utah's school trust lands. Private owners are included in the mix, county planner Jeff Mendenhall said.

Commissioners placed the new zone on just LDS Church farmland, about 25,000 acres. No site plans have yet been received, Mendenhall said.

Before a large plant can come in, extensive infrastructure construction would have to take place, he added, including roads, a power substation and access to the natural gas line that runs through the area.

Once online it would employ as many as 1,000 to 1,200 people, Ellertson said. Initially it would begin with 400 hires.

"It is for sure coming," he said.

E-mail: rodger@desnews.com