West Valley City Officials Recommend Controversial Rezoning of Redwood Swap Meet Site

WEST VALLEY CITY — A West Valley City proposal that once again highlights the growing challenges that can accompany redevelopment has received the approval of city planning officials.

However, sellers using the 26.3-acre Redwood Swap Meet site are crying foul, even though they don’t own the land, which a developer wants to turn into a small subdivision containing 300 homes.

The West Valley Planning Commission voted 4-2 Wednesday to recommend approval of a rezoning and general plan update requested by EDGEHomes, a Draper-based developer. EDGEHomes wants to raze the property’s drive-in theater — which also serves as a weekend flea market — and build homes, but it first needs zoning and general plan changes for the proposal to move forward.

The property owner, Los Angeles-based De Anza Land and Leisure Corp., “has every right” to sell to EDGEHomes, said planning commission member Cindy Wood. She also alluded to the housing crisis affecting Utah. “Unfortunately, people need a place to live,” said Wood, who voted in favor of the change.

Still, the crowd at Wednesday’s meeting — largely opposed to the development — berated the commissioners after the vote, and a lawyer assisting them said they would keep up the pressure. “It’s a matter of life and death for some people. It’s not a convenience,” one woman shouted at the planning commissioners in the audience.

The flea market, located at 3700 S. Redwood Road, is the livelihood of many vendors, some of whom are immigrants from Mexico, the rest of Latin America and other countries. Closing the operation to make way for redevelopment, flea market developers say, would upend their lives.

West Valley attorney Orlando Luna, representing the sellers, said the enemies’ fight is not over. The proposal, along with the planning commission’s recommendation, will now be considered by the West Valley City Council, which will have the final say.

“All they have to do now is address this issue with the city council,” Luna said, expressing his concerns and opposition to elected officials. Foes of development feel they have been ignored, Luna said, noting that 700 business operators sell goods at the exchange and that it attracts up to 7,000 visitors on some weekends.

Opponents of the proposal spoke at a public hearing on the issue two weeks ago and therefore did not have time to formally address commissioners at Wednesday’s meeting. They nevertheless gathered in the council chambers, many of them holding signs during the meeting expressing their concerns. Signs variously read “Stop Rezone”, “Save Swap Meet” and more.

Planning Commissioner Harold Woodruff voted against the recommendation to approve the necessary changes, saying the proposal could be better. Still, he said a change in how Redwood land is used is probably inevitable. “I think we all recognize that at some point this property is going to morph into something else,” he said.

Planning Commissioner Mathew Lovato, while aware of the need for space for a swap meeting, said, “It’s probably not on this lot.” He voted to recommend the zoning and general plan changes.

The 300 units, under the reworked EDGEHomes proposal, would include 244 townhouses, 40 condominiums and 16 single-family homes.