SANTA CLARA — Faced with a choice between siding with a developer proposing a mix of homes and townhomes in an empty area on Pioneer Parkway and residents who say they are fed up with dense housing in the city, the Santa Clara City Council chose neither during its meeting Wednesday night. 

The council chose not to deny or approve a developer’s application to change zoning on the property between 400 East and Patricia Drive from low-density three homes per acre to medium-density eight homes per acre. Instead, they tabled the proposal in a narrow, 3-2 vote and tasked the developer to come back with a housing proposal between the two in terms of crowdedness.

While all five council members expressed reservations about the project during the debate, two council members, Leina Mathis and Christa Hinton, said they would approve the zoning based on it providing more housing in a lower price range in the series. Two others, Jarett Waite and Denny Drake, expressed “nay” votes citing that the project offered too much housing in one space. 

A fifth council member, Ben Shakespeare, fit somewhere between the two: The project was too dense, but he wanted the developer to be able to come back to the council in a short time with a revised, less dense housing project. 

“There are some positives on this, but when we’re talking affordable housing, we all say that and laugh. Townhomes at $200,000 each aren’t affordable,” Shakespeare said. “I am in favor of doing … three units per acre and what’s being proposed is eight homes per acre.”

The problem was if the council were to vote no on the plan, Utah law dictates they would have to wait a year before coming back with a revised zoning plan for their land. 

After Matt Ence, who serves as the city attorney, suggested that by tabling the zone change, the developer could come back with a revision without having to wait a year, that is ultimately what the council did with Hinton and Mathis joining Shakespeare as yes votes while Waite and Drake voted “no.”

The developer, Clayton Leavitt, who spoke at the meeting, didn’t say whether he would come back with a revised plan and could also return with the same plan though Shakespeare expressed that such a plan could be dead on arrival. 

The project as presented, called “Pioneer Pointe,” would consist of 75 multifamily townhomes combined with 69 single-family homes on about 18 acres of property. An open recreation area in the center would include a swimming pool and pickleball courts among the amenities.  

“Our first vision for the property is how do we build more affordable homes in the neighborhood?” Leavitt, a resident of Santa Clara himself, told the council. He said he has been working with city workers and neighbors since last May on the plan. Originally intending only townhomes, he switched nearly half the plots to single-family “buffer zones.”

In a recent town hall in neighboring Ivins, advocates said density shouldn’t be frowned upon to bring more attainable housing for more people who actually work in Southern Utah communities and say so-called not-in-my-backyard “NIMBYs” are making the lack of housing worse. 

At the same time, at both the Ivins town hall and at Santa Clara Town Hall on Wednesday night, there are many who contend that there is nothing wrong with maintaining the current feel of the homes and neighborhoods, as bringing in smaller houses, and more of them, risks reducing the quality of life in the community and the type of people it attracts. 

However, Hinton said the quality of life in Santa Clara and Southern Utah is already declining due to the community losing people who can’t service local residents because of unaffordable housing.

She mentioned recently attending a housing conference and speaking with a nurse who couldn’t afford to live locally. She then got a master’s degree to boost her income and still couldn’t find a home she could afford. 

“We talk about quality of life but not having housing in this price range is already looking at declining our quality of life,” said Hinton. “This is a tough one. One of my concerns is we don’t have much attainable housing in Santa Clara.”

Hinton and others noted that many of the people who work in Santa Clara and nearby Ivins can’t afford to live there. She said she has been told that the Southern Utah Veterans Home is struggling to stay open because of a lack of employees. 

But council member Drake said Santa Clara already has had townhomes and it hasn’t made homes any more affordable in the city.

“Affordability will be determined by the market,” Drake said. “Affordability is still a nebulous term. What is affordable to one is not affordable to others. I believe in the integrity of what we’re trying to create in Santa Clara, which is something I cherish: single-family homes.”

The sentiment was echoed by many of the residents who brought in more audience mentors than usual to a council meeting and also packed the same chamber on March 23 when the Planning Commission held a public hearing on the matter. That session grew heated enough that Commission Chairman Mark Hendrickson threatened to have those in the audience escorted out for disruption. 

Of the 24 residents who spoke at the public hearing, two spoke for the rezoning, two spoke in favor of scaling down the existing project and 20 spoke against the project entirely. Resident comments ranged from those worried about parking, quality of life and property values to one resident who said if the rezoning was approved, they would move out of Santa Clara. 

Ultimately, the commission split in a 3-3 vote to recommend the zoning change, sending it to the council without an endorsement or opposition. 

Speaking to the council last Wednesday, Leavitt accused opposing residents of not wanting more middle-class residents in the city. 

“We want there to be a sense of community with amenities that will attract the top residents of Santa Clara, but I guess there’s a view by people behind me that some of the residents aren’t at the top.”

Noting a petition with hundreds of signatures presented to the city that opposed the development, Leavitt said many residents signed the petition without seeing the actual plans of the property. 

St. George News acquired a copy of the petition and of the 252 signatures, 15 were dated after June of last year. 

Opposing residents expressed concerns about the development adding to local traffic and creating parking issues on Tuscany Drive. Leavitt countered that there will be 301 parking spaces for residents and visitors inside Pioneer Pointe. 

Residents also noted the school district owns empty land directly to the east of the proposed development that is slated for a future school. Without saying he is for or against Pioneer Pointe, Michael Lee, the Washington County School District’s risk management coordinator, told the council Wednesday to keep in mind the need for safe routes for students at the proposed school.

But even while expressing support for rezoning the property, Hinton said she had strong concerns about homes being used as short-term rentals.

“If we’re talking about community, we get a lot more from ownership,” Hinton said during the meeting, then directing a question at Leavitt. “I’m wondering if you’ve considered including in CC&Rs keeping homes owned and occupied. I reached out to the city attorney and that’s something we can consider.”

Leavitt responded that he was open to having a stipulation that 50% of the townhomes need to be owned and occupied but also said if a townhome owner wanted to rent their property, they would need the approval of the property manager.

Updated April 19, 2023, 3:22 p.m.: Clarifies council action in second paragraph.

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