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Alpine residents concerned about proposed housing development

Posted at 7:37 PM, Nov 18, 2013
and last updated 2013-11-18 21:37:22-05

ALPINE -- Vickie Ray woke up Monday morning to the sound of more construction outside her Alpine home.

It’s been this way since September when the flash floods sent tons of debris down the burn scar left by a wildfire last year.

“I used to like the rain, Ray said. “Now I get in my car and sit out on the road,” Ray said.

Ray bought the lot from Patterson Homes with no knowledge of the area’s risky terrain.

After a year of living on the site she learned that every time it rained her dream home was at risk of being washed away.

“I certainly wouldn’t call it cat and dog rain – no, it’s just normal little bit of rain, but you have that big mountain with a huge gorge that I had no idea was there,” Ray said.

The burn scar near Ray’s house was a result of Quail Fire. It scorched more than 2,000 acres and was sparked by a track hoe trenching another development for Patterson Homes.

Ray’s neighbor Gill Greer said the blaze burned away all the brush.

“The flooding that came up afterwards has eroded the lands and now we have floods, landslides into all of the areas here,” Greer said.

Greer is working to get residents educated about Pattern Homes’ next development.

Developers want to build 59 lots in what is called the Lambert Park subdivision. Residents in the area consider themselves victims of Patterson Homes’ poor planning and they are afraid history is about to repeat itself.

“The problem is we don’t know that they always reveal all the problems,” Greer said.

A Patterson Homes spokesman said the plans for the development has been approved by all the necessary inspectors and they’ll be making their case at Tuesday night’s Utah County Planning Committee meeting.

“Our point is this, if you are saying there’s no problem they you put up the money to indemnify the city and residents – if there’s a loss then you pay it,” Greer said.

Alpine residents are planning on attending the meeting, which will take place at 5:30 p.m. at the Utah County Administration building.