Over the course of decades, the planned Cedar Crest Village would have transformed the Hoytsville area south of Coalville into a community with a couple thousand homes.
Larry H. Miller got mixed reviews from the public at the Eastern Summit County Planning Commission, which pressed the developer for more details during two years of discussions.
“We felt like we were developing a project that was competing with Coalville as we looked at the goals of the Cedar Crest project, it had its own business center, its own job development approach,” Larry H. Miller Real Estate Chief Visioning Officer Stephen James said. “And you know, as we looked at well, how are we going to service this from a utilities perspective, it probably made sense to partner with Coalville anyhow.”
The company presented an annexation petition to the Coalville City Council April 14. The council won’t take any action on it until the summer so that Larry H. Miller can hold a public forum.
James said the scope of what the firm wants to do is shrinking.
“What you'll see is a more calibrated approach,” he told the council April 14. “Rather than having to set out a whole vision that might take 50 years, but bring so many units it was hard to comprehend, what if we just start small and see where it goes?”
Larry H. Miller owns about 1,000 acres south of Coalville, but it's only asking the city to annex about 300.
Councilmember Lynn Wood sees Wanship residents’ opposition to Blue Sky Ranch’s recent expansion proposal as a cautionary tale.
“Blue Sky was a good example of where they went to a public hearing and were shocked by what they heard. They had no idea, and they pulled back,” Wood said. “I actually spoke with one of the owners up there, and he said, ‘I wish we had done more public outreach before we got to that point.’”
The Coalville council tabled any discussion of Larry H. Miller’s development until June 23, to make time for public engagement.
