St. George City Council approves 103 additional units in Desert Color development

ST. GEORGE — The St. George City Council gave the developers of Desert Color the go-ahead Thursday on a series of amendments – five altogether – meant to increase the number of units that may be built in the Auburn Hills section of the development.

A model home in Auburn Hills, St. George, Utah, March 1, 2021 | Photo by David Dudley, St. George News

Auburn Hills is located to the southeast of St. George. Developers will add approximately 103 new multifamily units – townhomes and condos – to Desert Color, a 3,400-acre master-planned community.

A good thing, too, as Dylan Murdock, a real estate agent who works with Holmes Homes, said they’re going fast.

“There’s such a demand for these homes right now,” Murdock told St. George news. “I’m confident that they’ll sell the moment I list them.”

While Murdock didn’t know the price of the condos, he said the townhomes are roughly priced at $350,000 to $390,000. Even then, Murdock has a waiting list of 75-100 people interested in the homes.

A model home in Auburn Hills, St. George, Utah, March 1, 2021 | Photo by David Dudley, St. George News

“That isn’t common,” he said. “But there’s less than 349 homes for sale in the area right now. That includes trailers all the way up to multi-million dollar homes. The demand is so crazy, builders are trying to keep up.”

While the council praised the additional homes, they also complimented the work done by Desert Color’s team of developers.

Vardell Curtis, the newest member of the council, who is also on St. George’s Planning Commission, said that he looks forward to the Desert Color development team’s proposals.

“A lot of the work by staff has already been vetted,” Curtis said. “The presentations are done in such a way that it’s easy even for a novice like me to understand. It makes it a lot easier to say, ‘That’s great, let’s move forward.'”

Curtis added that the project, which is the first of its kind in Utah to adopt a water-efficient landscape, is also filling a need for housing, then he made a motion to approve the amendment in question.

An Auburn Hills home in the early stages of construction, St. George, Utah, March 1, 2021 | Photo by David Dudley, St. George News

Councilman Gregg McArthur also complimented Desert Color’s developers, who are responsible for the 25-year project that will add roughly 11,000 new homes.

“We’ve just been out there,” McArthur said. “It’s just a well-planned development.”

Mayor Michele Randall, who may have become self-conscious of the ease with which the five amendments were approved, made an aside to the audience at one point during the meeting.

“As we breeze through this,” Randall said, “it’s because the Planning Commission does the heavy lifting. When it gets to us, everything’s been hashed out.”

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2021, all rights reserved.

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