WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah, Sept. 18, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — The West Valley City Council has voted to rezone the Redwood Drive-In, which also serves as the site of a popular and long-standing swap meet, over the objections of vocal community members who came to the Tuesday night meeting to speak against the proposal.
The zone change, from commercial to residential, clears the way for potential buyer Edge Homes to turn the 26-acre site into a housing complex with a reported 300 units.
About 40 people, many of them swap meet vendors or vendor relatives, came to protest the likely loss of livelihood for more than 100 sellers. One woman said her father raised seven children on his swap meet income, and few vendors could hope to afford to rent or buy one of the future units.
City Councilman Lars Nordfelt told those in attendance that the issue at hand was property rights, and the owner of the land would determine its use, within the law. Nordfelt told listeners the council could not determine the owner would continue to host swap meets.
Answering community members’ pleas to save the swap meet, Nordfelt said that decision was the property owner’s, not the City Council’s, to make.
“If we vote no (on rezoning), it doesn’t save the swap meet,” Nordfelt said. “It’s the landowners that decide whether or not to save the swap meet. We don’t own that land. It’s not up to us to decide what business is there.”
The city’s recording of the hearing and council meeting is below. The content related to the rezoning begins at about 4:15 in.
