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West Valley City Journal

WVC planners recommend rezone, reDevelopment of Redwood Drive-In site

Jul 11, 2024 01:44PM ● By Tom Haraldsen

The historic Redwood Drive-In could be demolished and the site rezoned for development of 300 new homes. City Council will make a final decision on the zoning. (Tom Haraldsen/City Journals)

While the West Valley Performing Arts Center found a lifeline to stay in business this past month (see story in this issue), the fate of another theater is now in question.

The city’s Planning Commission voted 4-2 on June 26 to recommend approval of a rezone on property currently housing the historical Redwood Drive In. The 26.3-acre site on Redwood Road has been used extensively for swap meets for years, with minimal use as a drive-in theater during summer months. The recommendation will now go to the city council for its consideration at a later date.

The rezone has been sought by EDGEhomes, a developer in Draper, which wants to purchase the land and build 300 housing units on the site—244 townhomes, 40 condominiums and 16 single-family homes. The property is owned by De Anza Land and Leisure Corp of Los Angeles. That company once operated a number of drive-in theaters across the country but has been closing them and selling the land to developers.

Since word of the EDGEhomes request for rezoning was first unveiled, a groundswell of support to keep the theaters and swap meet site in place has continued to grow. An online petition on change.org has already received over 20,000 signatures, and opponents of the zone change filled the council chambers for the planning commission meeting. Almost all present were mainly interested in preserving the site for swap meets that are held each weekend. Commissioners have been studying the developer’s proposal and said some changes to its general plan would be necessary for the proposal to go forward.

The commission first heard about the plan in an earlier June meeting, but tabled the motion for two weeks. At that first hearing, which lasted more than three hours, many vendors spoke at length about the importance of the swap meet, citing their livelihoods depended on being able to market their products and services at the meet.

“This is my source of income—how I support my family,” said one vendor who spoke just outside the chamber following the June 26 hearing. “We don’t need more housing—we need more opportunities for people to make a living and pay rents for the houses we now have. Building more houses isn’t going to help anyone who is struggling and can’t afford these fancy new homes they are proposing.”

That countered a comment made in the meeting by commission member Cindy Wood, who said that the property owner has the right to sell to EDGEhomes and added that Utah is being impacted by a housing crunch. “Unfortunately, people need a place to live,” she said before making the motion for approval of the rezone recommendation.

This isn’t the first time the drive-in property has been on the wish list for development. Three years ago, a different developer asked for rezoning the property but opponents helped stop that from moving forward. This time seems different.

Steve Pastorik, the city’s community development director, gave a review of the EDGEhomes plan before the commission meeting began. He said all proposals for rezones are taken on a case-by-case basis, and that the city council carefully reviews all recommendations and proposals before rendering a decision. There is no timeline on when that will appear before council, or when the drive-in theater would be closed and eventually demolished. Stay tuned. λ