Apple Valley Area Considers Incorporation
 
Hurricane Valley Journal
 
Incorporation of Apple Valley, Canaan Gap, Gooseberry, Paradise Ranch, and South Zion is of utmost concern to the residents in their effort to block annexation by Hildale. Residents met in the Smithsonian Fire Station in Apple Valley on October 24 for a community meeting. They discussed and received information regarding incorporation or annexation. The big concern for these communities is that if they do not pull together and decide what they want for their future, others will make the decisions for them. Both Hildale and Hurricane have filed plans to annex Apple Valley. Residents were informed of what each proposal contains and what that means to them as individuals in their respective communities.

If a town or city filed for annexation before Apple Valley had a chance to file for incorporation, the annexation would trump the incorporation. Apple Valley would have to wait until all the annexation issues were resolved before they could go forward with incorporation. A map shows Hildale's plan to purchase land in order to gain the majority of property ownership. Hurricane filed an annexation plan just to give the citizens another option explained the Hurricane City Council. However, Hurricane is not really interested in annexing Apple Valley but will support them in their plan to incorporate.

A local citizen, Ronald Bagnell, said, "My wife and I moved to Apple Valley about five years ago because I like my space. I'm kind of a private person, and I don't like to get my sleeves too dirty, and I don't like to roll them up unless I have to. I felt like I needed to roll them up with this issue. As a community if we sit on our hands and don't do anything, within three to five years, Hildale will annex this community out here. It would be nice not to be incorporated, but honestly, I think that option is gone. We need to talk about what we are going to do to manage our growth, what we are going to do to manage our community up here as citizens, so we don?t have someone else doing it for us."

Bagnell described the way Hildale is set up under their religious affiliation as a corporation. He explained that one of the issues with Hildale is electrical power. Hildale charges Hurricane City six cents a kilowatt, but charges their own people 12 cents a kilowatt. "Hildale residents have to run things on a generator because they can't afford to pay for power." Power is not the only concern to residents."Anyone who is annexed into Hildale would have to pay to pipe their own water to their home," said Bagnell.

Mary Reep, a Canaan Gap resident, explained the background for calling the meeting. She happened to see a proposed zoning change in the newspaper to change the zoning across from her home to M-1 Manufacturing. This zone change would include five acres to be developed into a truss plant by Alco Truss of Hildale. Reep feels the zoning for planned development is community-friendly right now, but M-1 manufacturing would not be community friendly. An M-1 Manufacturing zone change would tie the planning commission?s hands in that they couldn?t turn down anyone else's request. Thus, the door would be opened for Hildale residents to purchase more land, taking away current residents' options to have a say in annexation. Reep and another resident, Barbara Hall, attended the Washington County Planning Commission meeting where the zone change would be decided. Because of their objections, the zone change was only conditionally approved at that time; however, in a later meeting, the zoning change was denied because the master plan does not reflect manufacturing in that area.

Reep introduced Jonathan Wright, an attorney of the law firm Gallian Westfall Wilcox and Welker of St. George. Attorney Wright educated the residents regarding annexation and the legal process needed to incorporate as a city. First, a legal description must be drawn up. A majority of landowners or people holding title to property and a third of the taxable value of property within the proposed area has to be represented in the petition to incorporate. More than 50% of the total landowners within that land area must sign the petition. With the legal description and the majority of land ownership met, the petition is then filed with the Washington County Clerk, who verifies the signatures with the ownership records and tax assessment rolls to determine whether or not the petition qualifies as meeting the requirements of incorporation. Then Washington County does a feasibility study. Based upon the feasibility study, the county commissioners can than make the final decision for incorporation.

The citizens in attendance voted to begin the process for incorporating their communities and the meeting was adjourned for two weeks.

At the second meeting, on Nov. 7, Reep explained that even though Alco Truss?s zone change proposal was denied, she doesn?t believe that the zone change is a dead issue because of the amount of property purchased by Alco Truss. "They simply have to ask for the master plan to be changed to allow that kind of zoning, then fix all the issues brought up, such as maintaining proper water pressure by getting a water tank, doing road work, widening the highway." Reep continued, "It would be extensive, but not insurmountable to them. I don?t feel we should back off on our plans to move ahead to protect the area. The commissioners have agreed to hear us on incorporation."

Karen Fink, a local engineer who recently moved into the area, gave a report on how they came up with the boundaries for the proposed town. The committee looked at the existing fire service district and tried to take most of the sections that the fire service district covered. Keeping in mind topographical constraints, some of those areas were taken off. A couple of the school sections were taken off that were in the fire district, and other sections added. No island or peninsula can be within the boundaries. There are 59 sections making 59 square miles within the proposed boundaries. The boundaries touch Hildale on one side, Rockville on another side, and are two sections from Hurricane and Virgin.

The citizens voted on a name for the proposed town. The top three names were Apple Valley, Big Plains, and Smithsonian. When they voted again, Apple Valley received the highest vote. With the information, name, and legal description of the proposed town, the citizens are now in the process of signing the petitions.
 
hvjournal.com
Originally published January 25, 2009
 
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