Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A Web site for a development at Eagle Mountain boasted that the area had a small number of blacks.
The Web site of home builder Bigg Homes said, "Black race population percentage significantly below state average," with the "significantly below" in bold.
David Adams, co-owner of Bigg Homes, removed the racial information from the site after being contacted by The Salt Lake Tribune on Thursday.
"We apologize if that offended anybody. It wasn't our intention," he said. "Frankly, it is offensive to me, too."
Adams said the information didn't come from his company. He said a Web designer contracted to build the Bigg Homes site copied information from another Internet address.
"We noticed it immediately," Adams said. "We asked him to remove it."
That was two months ago.
"It wasn't done. It's done now," he said.
Adams said he is considering firing the Web designer, whom he would not identify.
Jeanetta Williams, president of the NAACP branch in Salt Lake City, described the information as "subtle discrimination," meant to encourage white people and discourage black people from buying in the area.
Bigg Homes, a division of EM Holdings, had its grand opening on Oct. 1 and has since sold 60 houses that are still under construction.
Black residents in Eagle Mountain, like in the rest of Utah, are rare. The 2000 Census put Eagle Mountain's black population at 0.6 percent black. Utah as a whole was about 1.3 percent black in 2004 Census estimates.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
