Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune Homes in the polygamous town of Hildale, Utah, could be auctioned off in May if $1.1 million in property taxes isn't paid to Washington County. As of mid April, community members had paid about $700,000 of the debt.

The area around the twin polygamous towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., is still a desert. But now it looks like it’ll be a little less of a “food desert.”

A new grocery store is opening up in Arizona three miles outside of the Short Creek region. Ladd Egan of KUTV reported last week that the new store sits just off Arizona Highway 389 in the community of Centennial Park. The store also reportedly will be operated by a fundamentalist Mormon group that split from the FLDS in the 1980s, though anyone will be allowed to shop there.

The store’s manager, as well as authorities, believe the store will fill an empty niche in the community; the area’s only other grocery store — the FLDS-controlled CMC Food Town — closed abruptly in November.

Egan reports that the new store may end 30 mile drives to shop at what is currently the nearest grocery store. A “food desert” is a term experts use to describe a place where people have inadequate access to food.

jdalrymple@sltrib.com