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Posh Polygamist Neighborhood Sold
Comfortably nestled in one of the nicer areas of Salt Lake City
From the Deseret News
Saturday, May 15, 1999
New kids on the block?
Polygamist compound is up for grabs By Lucinda Dillon Deseret News staff writer
SANDY Oh, what the posh community at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon wouldn't do to get its polygamist neighbors back.
For years, Rulon Jeffs, the 89-year-old leader of the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, lived in relative peace behind a white concrete wall at the tip-top of Little Cottonwood Lane.
The six-acre plot, with huge pine trees, several houses, a meeting hall, even reportedly a formidable wine cellar, is known by outsiders as "the compound." Until recently, Jeffs lived there with some of his many wives and children.
With its huge wall, mysterious residents and its location in the middle of the upper-class, suburban neighborhood, the property over the years gained notoriety for locals and tourists.
Jeffs is the claimed prophet of 8,000 to 12,000 group members who live mostly along the Wasatch Front and in the twin polygamous communities of Hildale and Colorado City on the Utah/Arizona border. The Sandy compound was headquarters for his church.
Jeffs reportedly jetted in a private plane back and forth between the two locations of the fundamentalist church, the largest polygamist group in North America.
Jeffs has never been friendly with the media but he has been a good neighbor.
But no more. Gone are the days when the aging polygamous leader would join the neighborhood summer block party with one or more of his wives. He no longer attends community council meetings.
The women and children in handmade clothing who caught stares as they shopped in local grocery store aisles are gone.
Last year, Jeffs, who has millions in corporate interests and is an accountant by profession, sold the property and moved south to Hildale, Washington County.
And now neighbors worry the new owners plan to turn the compound into a boarding school, some kind of juvenile correctional facility or some other kind of facility for "wayward children."
"The concern is having a complex located in your neighborhood that for all intents and purposes is considered a youth correctional facility," said David Hart, head of the Granite Community Council and a Salt Lake architect.
"We wish the new owners would come to the community," Hart said. The council is not trying to be mean or heavy-handed with the new owners. "We are more than willing to work with them and find a use that is mutually beneficial to everyone."
The community has encountered great mystery and confusion about the property's new owners and how they will use the six-acre plot made famous by its former owners.
Alta Complex LLC, of Draper, has purchased at least part of the property, according to county records.
Bill Marsh, of Salt Lake County's development services division, confirmed he's had talks with the new owners and has heard some of the proposals but said no formal requests for permits have been submitted.
Utah Department of Commerce records show Alta Complex LLC, of 1599 E. 12700 South in Draper, began business Feb. 17, 1999. Loraine N. Sundquist, of the same address, is listed as the company manager.
But attorney Travis Bowen of Salt Lake City, who represents Alta, isn't talking.
An assistant to Bowen told the Deseret News Bowen wouldn't comment on plans for the property or the company.
The silence is a far cry from Jeffs and the polygamists, who were "very open and very friendly," according to neighbors.
"The bottom line is . . . if they're going to do something that involves boarding, training or retention of children," Hart said, "they ought to be forthright and communicate that to the community."
Sen. Minority Leader Scott Howell, D-Granite, said he will meet with Salt Lake County commissioners about the property on Monday.
Alta officials have reportedly told members of the community the plans for a group home are off. But Howell said, "I'm a little suspect of that."
Howell said state juvenile justice court officials are also curious about the plans.
Laura Chapman, 35, is a former polygamist wife and attended Jeffs' church at the Sandy headquarters until she was 25.
She remembers the Kelly-green shag carpet and the kitchen in Jeff's two-story, colonial-style home built in 1969. For its time, the enormous house was one of the most modern around.
She remembers the long meeting hall with its microphones and speakers and rows of chairs where the highest-ranking officials got to sit closest to the front.
Today, buildings on the property have grown. The main house, more than 8,000 square feet, is still there as are several other houses one with 22 rooms.
The property reportedly sold for between $1 million and $3 million.
The property is nearly vacant today. A pastor with no church building has rented out the large building for his worship services.
Hart said community members have been so engrossed in their reaction to the rumored plans they haven't had a chance to decide what they think would be the best use for the property.
But Hart likes what he's heard from neighbor Robert Grow, a Little Cottonwood Lane resident and until recently head of Envision Utah, a growth planning partnership.
"We've heard a lot about 'walkable communities,' " Hart said. So a church or a small neighborhood shop or store would work in the space. "I definitely do not think that is a Smith's or a 7-Eleven."
Page Modified May 15, 1999