Development Plan Divides Small Utah Town

Tucked in a corner between Geneva Steel and Utah Lake is a quiet town that most people have never heard of.

It has no police station, no gas station and no traffic lights. Most residents can trace their heritage back to a grape farmer named Shadrach Holdaway.

Some of the 150 people who live in Vineyard hope that things never change. They like driving past cornfields and falling asleep to the sound of crickets. Others say the time has come to accept change. The demise of Geneva Steel seems as certain as sunrise and, when the mill goes, so goes much of Vineyard’s tax base.

“The whole area’s going to change in 10 years,” Glade Holdaway said. “It’s going to develop, and we might as well be the ones that reap the benefits.”

He is one of four farmers who together have sold 180 acres to a developer who wants to turn their corn and barley fields into a gated community on the shores of Utah Lake, complete with polo fields and equestrian trails. The planned community of 700 acres would also include open fields for horseback riding and a boardwalk and restaurants along the shore of Utah Lake.

It is somewhat ironic that farmers like Holdaway are pushing for change. The town was incorporated in 1989 to stop the tide of tract homes that had already engulfed nearby Orem.

“We incorporated to control our destiny. If we didn’t do something, the development would have gone from Orem to the shores of the lake,” said Grant Holdaway, a planning commissioner and town councilman.

Some planning commissioners and town councilmen do not like the development plan and may vote against it. The proposal will come before the planning commission in January.

“The City Council is not in the business of making controversy or stopping people. They just want to make it a nice community,” said Barbara Davies, town clerk. She likes to wake to the sound of tractors and would just as soon keep Vineyard as is.

“It’s the best of both worlds. We’re close to the city, but we come home to a quiet, peaceful place,” Davies said. “We enjoy living by the lake, hearing birds and farm equipment.”

She and others hope that another steel mill will buy Geneva’s operation and keep it running, but that seems unlikely.

“The town is not fading into the sunset just because Geneva might go away,” Davies said. “The town is not going bankrupt. We could function just fine the way we are for a long, long time.”

Grant Holdaway, 71, feels as much loyalty to the town’s heritage as anyone. His great-great-grandfather, Shadrach Holdaway, homesteaded the land in 1860. Grape vineyards once extended from Orem to Utah Lake, giving the community its name.

“We see the writing on the wall. Farming is out. The question is, what do we do about the future,” he said. “I don’t like living in the city, and it’s all around me now. I’ve got two choices. Do I sell out and move somewhere more rural, or do I adjust to change?”

Glade Holdaway has decided to adjust, but with trepidation.

“I have mixed emotions. My grandpa farmed this land, and I grew up here. I can’t imagine a more pleasant childhood than growing up on a farm,” he said. “Of course, we’d like to leave it as it is, but that just can’t happen.”