That's not all. They don't want increased school-generated traffic in their bucolic neighborhood.

Problem is, the Providence Hall Charter School already held its groundbreaking ceremony last week. That's when residents, to draw attention to traffic issues, drove up and down dead-end 4000 West near the school site at 14050 South.

But now those neighbors are taking their cause to the Bluffdale City Council. They want to show how the school site is prone to flooding from a canal, making it a bad fit for students. They point to state code that says charter school sites "shall not be located in an area where there is a history or high possibility of flooding."

On Monday, resident Barbara Harper recalled that on Aug. 21, 2001, the canal overflowed and sent a huge river of water rushing through pastures, picking up manure and piling it into the basements of numerous homes.

The water blew out windows in her basement, she said, and shot shards of glass through her foot and leg, lacerating tendons. She was on crutches for nearly six months and underwent two surgeries.

"I literally had two seconds to clear my kids and me out of the way before the windows exploded," Harper said. "And the water was so deep, the ambulances couldn't get to my house. It took them 15 minutes to go two miles."

Representatives from the State Office of Education were unavailable for comment Monday afternoon, but the charter school's developer, Tom Pitcher, said residents are simply intent on killing the project any way they can.

"I don't think they're really concerned about flooding for the school," Pitcher said, adding that those issues have been worked out with the city staff and will be mitigated. "If a house is permitted to go there, certainly a school will be - if it's at the appropriate height."

Pitcher said school representatives have been "dismayed" by some residents' behavior. But he added those loud voices don't represent the majority because about a dozen families in the site's immediate vicinity will send their kids there.

But Harper's husband, Terry, said no one in the neighborhood is anti-education - the neighborhood has simply flooded three times in the 11 years he's lived there.

"It's just a bad, bad spot - not only for us as neighbors, but for students," Terry Harper said. "I don't see how anyone could not be concerned for [their] welfare."

Meanwhile, some Bluffdale council members said they might conduct a traffic study and challenge the site's safety. But they don't know how much sway they have. State law says that charter schools don't need the city's OK to move in.

"I don't know that it's a very good location for a school," said Councilman Bill Maxwell. "We can't stop this without a real compelling public-safety issue."

Pitcher said the only hoop educators still need to jump through is to get the state fire marshal's blessing. Once that's obtained, the school's "not moving."

"We have the legal right to build there, and we've done everything we can - short of moving the project - to accommodate concerns."

"Even the City Council has to follow the law."

sgehrke@sltrib.com