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1 Trevor Chadwick From: Joseph Heard <[EMAIL REDACTED]> Sent: Monday, February 21, 2022 12:32 PM To: Trevor Chadwick; Kevin Nielsen; [EMAIL REDACTED]; [EMAIL REDACTED]; David Hershey Subject: Willowbrook development To Star City Council. 2-19-2022 Ref. Willowbrook Development I have a number of concerns about this development that others have expressed either in letters to the council or on social media. The development, as proposed, will have a profound effect not only on present Hillsdale residents but also the city of Star on a whole. I recently took a drive through the northern part of Star which I hadn’t done in a number of years. I was amazed at all of the growth that is taking place. Practically all of what used to be open parcels is now completed housing tracts, houses under construction, property being developed or parcels with Star Hearing notices on them. All of this, as you well know, will have a profound effect on every day life in Star including increased traffic and water and sewer usage. Now add in the proposed 4,600 plus homes proposed by Willowbrook, which will come close to doubling the size of Star. Just looking at this from a Hillsdale resident’s point of view this development is nowhere close to maintaining the continuity of the present Hillsdale development that was originally built and promoted by Bob Phillips (Willowbrook). It’s not what I would call a stand alone development as it is totally intertwined within Hillsdale. There will be no way to effectively separate the two. By separation I mean Hillsdale residents pay to maintain an equestrian center, a wildlife environmentally friendly pond and a fishing pond. They will be surrounded by the new development and if the number of units proposed are developed, it will effectively destroy all of this. I understand the developers right to build but there are other options that wouldn’t ruin the present development. One option would be to build the golf course along the lines of River Birch. The golf course could be built in and around Hillsdale which would add value to both. As it is, cramming all those small lots in-between existing Hillsdale lots will create nothing but problems. Water is another major issue. I realize Star City Water and Sewer has said all of this can be handled but only after Nate proposed building a water treatment plant and drilling new wells. Hillsdale has its own water system which, in the last few years, Hillsdale residents have had to take out loans in excess of 2.5 million dollars to upgrade the water system that Willowbrook installed. Existing wells have had to be re-drilled and new wells drilled. A new pumping station was built and the water storage tank was enlarged to accommodate extra water storage for fire suppression. Drilling wells in the new development has the potential to draw the water level down to the point of making Hillsdale wells unusable. When Nate was questioned on this his reply was “not Willowbrook’s problem”, thus it becomes the city of Stars problem. Very professional answer but probably right on. Traffic is is going to be a major problem both within the development and for the city of Star. Traffic will have to traverse roads that were not build to handle the amount of traffic that is being proposed. Deep Canyon cannot handle the traffic without being widened but then residential driveways are still a problem if it becomes a major thoroughfare. According to Nate, BLM has not even been contacted about putting a road through their land. I wonder how long it will take to install the proposed overpass on Hwy 16 north of Deep Canyon. It appears that there are a lot of if’s on this project. The ITD website does not show any future plans to widen Hwy 16 north from Hwy 44. It probably will be eventually but how far out is the question.The buildout of Hwy 44 from CanAda to Linder will probably be completed next year which will help get traffic through Star. So the problem remains, how to get traffic down to Hwy 44. ---PAGE BREAK--- 2 My “personal” feelings are that this is not viable development as proposed for either Star or Hillsdale residents. I realize feelings have nothing to do with councils decisions. I would however encourage the council to look at all of the issues surrounding Willowbrook’s proposal. From what I got out of the earlier proposal and the one before the council now is that Nates desires to pass the proposal now and work out the details later. That is putting the cart before the horse. Thank you for your consideration Joseph Heard Joseph Heard [EMAIL REDACTED]