Mud Roads cause strife in Eagle Mountain

Eagle Mountain City has policies in place that require developers to put in roads to the developments they are developing before they issue building permits for the sub divisions that are supposed to be accessed using those roads. In general the roads are required to be paved, and meet all the city requirements. But there have been several times in the past when these requirements have not been met, were not required at the time, or have been waived for various reasons. When the developer is not responsible for completion of the roads, or if building permits are issued before the road is completed, it can cause some disputes between neighbors, developers, and the city. One recent example is that of building of Golden Eagle. Golden Eagle currently supplies traffic for the South Pass, Liberty Farms, Kiowa Valley, and Freemont Springs developments. The fact the developer has not completed the road and people are now living in areas that the road services, has created some heated discussion between residents, the city, and the developer. Savannah Pitt, an Eagle Mountain Resident, recently started a Facebook post on an Eagle Mountain related page. In that post, she included several pictures of the current state of the road. Mayor Pengra responded to this post with the following information.

FYI, we are contributing $100,000 to the developer to complete the road. We tried to make it happen last year but couldn’t because the developer needed to complete some work before the road would be ready for paving. By that time the weather was too cold for asphalt. In any case, the job still needs to be done by the developer, but we will work with them to make this a priority after the weather warms. … The road will cost far more than $100k to complete and it all lies within a development that is being finished in phases. We can avoid participating in the cost of the road if residents would like to wait until the development is completed in future phases? Otherwise we intend to contribute $100k which will offset the cost of the developer completing a road for a future phase which he is not required to complete at this time. In other words, we pay $100k and finish the road now instead of waiting until 1-3 years from now to complete a road which arguably should have been done many years ago. [Source]

Another example can be found to the east of Lake Mountain Road. In the early years of Eagle Mountain a developer, sub-divided some land into 5+ acre lots and did not develop road access to those lots. These lots are located east of Lake Mountain Road behind the Friends in Need Animal Rescue. The developer had deeded land to the city that would allow for a future road, but that land was never developed into a road. The lot owners now own lots without road access. There have been several attempts to rezone areas of Lake Mountain Road, and during each attempt, these land owners were hoping that the new developments would open access to their lots. In November 2016 Jeff Peterson, a resident of Far West Utah, purchased one of those lots from a previous owner. In February of 2017 Peterson started to clear the city owned land for an access road to his property. Confused by the building, residents around the new road, asked the city if they knew or were in the process of building an access road in the area. The city did not know of any plans and asked Peterson to stop until he receive the proper permits before continuing. The residents were concerned that the road would create flooding issues and that the debris left from clearing the road would create future problems for the residents. The trees and sage brush were being placed in large piles along the area, residents were concerned about fire, wildlife, and trash issues. The permit was issued and fees were paid, and Peterson was given the green light to clear an access road to his property. The permit had a price tag of $53.50. It was issued to J&J Excavating, a excavation and construction company owned by Jeff Peterson. The permit was issued with the conditions that the access road would be confined to the city owned right of way, all materials be removed from the site, and the site cleaned up prior to completion. No completion date was specified on the permit. As Eagle Mountain continues to grow, develop, and expand, it will continue to run into situations that will cause contention between, developers, residents and the city. As new things are discovered, the City Code will evolve to handle the ever changing needs of the growing city.