HILDALE, Utah — The Hildale City Council voted unanimously Thursday to change the text for recreational zoning from a minimum of 5 acres to 3.5 acres, making it easier for recreational resorts to be developed.
“Without those things, we don't have the tax base to support any growth, to support some services that we need for enforcement and things that we would really like to have in the city that we're starting to grow to have to meet,” said Luke Merideth, City Council Member. “We don't have money, and so we need to have opportunities to make a little business into Hildale carefully.”
Multiple residents, like Marylou Lane, spoke out against the zoning change at the meeting.
“I don't want to live in a recreational town,” she said. “ I don't want to be like Springdale or Park City.”
Mayor Donia Jessup addressed residents’ fears, saying the city won’t allow resorts to pop up all over.
“So anybody with two acres or three acres can go anywhere in town and just set up a big resort? No,” she said. “It still has to come to has to be rezoned.”
Lane is now worried her hometown will become a tourist town.
“I was born here,” she said. “I was raised here. These mountains are my home. I've moved out of town for short amounts of time, and it's just nice to come back and be home, and I love this place. I want the home-like feel.”
