Spring City citizens sue City Council in effort to preserve town's historic charm

SPRING CITY, Sanpete County — A group of people in central Utah have filed a lawsuit against their own City Council on behalf of their historic town.

Spring City's historic designation claims it has the largest and best-preserved Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints pioneer settlement in the country. This lawsuit aims to keep it that way.

Spring City is one of many communities in rural Utah grappling with how to grow its town while maintaining its historic charm. This town, though, is doing something different — a group of citizens is trying to use the courts to stop their elected officials from making major changes.

Spring City boasts 1,366 acres of pristine history, including homes, barns, granaries and even a stone chapel built by masons.

The town looks nearly the same as it did 30, 60 or even 100 years ago — except for one very new bike lane and the heavy machinery building it.

"They just woke up, and there it was parked outside of their historic homes," said lawyer Melanie Adams Cook.

She is representing the group Citizens for Spring City and said heavy construction equipment arrived and began tearing up the road with no notice to the historic home owners.

"Some of the homes actually were damaged because of the construction," she said.

Michael Broadbent is a local homeowner, a member of the preservation group Friends of Historic Spring City, and a current City Council candidate. He claims the City Council is "trying to force in … half-acre lots and higher density housing in a national historic district."

"Imagine if we started to put multifamily housing and duplexes around This is the Place Monument. What kind of uproar would there be? This is exactly the same thing," said Sonja Brown, a member of the Citizens for Spring City and local homeowner.

Citizens like Brown and Broadbent said their City Council is pursuing large expansion projects without citizen approval and without a legally adopted city plan. Plus, they say community members get no notice when these projects begin.

This week in court, the judge denied the group's request for a temporary restraining order to halt projects like this one during litigation. The larger lawsuit was filed in July and alleges corruption in the City Council as well as unconstitutional action. They expect a hearing in the next few weeks.

"We are a small town that's fighting for its identity. It's really the battle for the soul of Spring City," Brown said.

KSL has reached out to each member of the City Council for this story; one responded and declined to comment during pending litigation.

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