The geotechnical investigation has Christina Eck’s husbands name on it. Christina Eck serves as a member of the city council. Her husband works for Ironwood Development.
When Jeff Jackson approached River Heights he was planning to develop 53 acres with 68 town houses, 52 active adult lots and 56 single family lots.
Now on 40 acres he plans to put 43 active adult homes, 47 single family homes, and 116 town houses.
That’s an addition of 48 more town houses, in spite of residents of Providence and River Heights speaking out against any town houses.
It’s an increase from 176 homes on 53 acres and 206 homes on 40 acres. Much higher density.
The Providence City newsletter cited Envision Utah for the statistic that the population will double in the next 30 years and how we can best plan for this. The suggestion is mixed-use-centers that “combine housing with places of employment, shopping, services, recreation, and other amenities.” Envision Cache Valley states, “Keep the city, city: invest in our towns-our centers for living, industry and culture. Keep the country, country: protect the agricultural and natural lands that sustain us.”
A very interesting Op-ed in the Deseret News last October tells what is happening in Cache Valley.
“Farmland is being sold and developed into multiunit housing developments faster than you can say trouble. Conversely, the population of Logan City is shrinking in proportion, especially the student population at Logan’s city schools. Logan is facing a crisis with both its downtown business district and its school district… you can hear a sucking sound created by the vacuum of the businesses and people leaving Logan.”
This is the opposite of Envision Utah’s and Envision Cache Valley’s goals. Yet this is exactly what’s happening with the Chugg property.
In the Providence City Newsletter it says, “We want to have well thought out requirements rather than having developers tell us how they are going to do it.”
On December 12, 2017, River Heights City Council voted to accept for further consideration the Chugg/Ironwood Annexation Petition. On the same day, Ironwood Development withdrew their petition because River Heights was concerned about townhomes. When the City Council voted to accept the Annexation Petition for consideration anyway, Craig Winder of Ironwood Development threatened a lawsuit. He said although it makes sense for them to be in River Heights, they wanted to explore options with Providence City, because they want to build townhomes on this property. All this is documented in River Heights City Council minutes and can be found online.
At the last City Council Meeting it was said that there are currently 200 townhouses in
Providence. A development of 164 more has been approved behind Macey’s. This comes close to doubling the number of townhouses in Providence. And that’s not mentioning all the homes being built in other areas.