Either way, the city is considering a sweeping zoning change that could drastically alter the historic downtown district and make way for a 10-story mixed-use development called "Village Grove."

Some hope the downtown project would bring vitality to the heart of the city - and some fear it would ruin its turn-of-the-century charm.

Both the rezoning effort and developer Joe Spencer's high-rise are drawing intense fire from a slew of longtime business owners, homeowners and even the city's Historic Preservation Commission, which unanimously opposed the development.

Commission Chairwoman Beth Olsen said her board wants downtown to be more viable. But, she said, progress does not need to come in the form of towering buildings.

"They're not historic, and they detract from the historic nature of downtown," she said.

And the move would require the city to bump up standards on building heights. The limit is now 55 feet. It can be raised to 80 feet under a conditional-use permit. But that's far short of a 10-story height, which Spencer declined to detail.

Darrell Cook, a planning commissioner for more than 30 years, said people are getting riled up over nothing. He doesn't think developers will ever get the needed approvals and ordinance changes.

However, Vick Hammond, a former planning commissioner and councilman who helped write the existing city code, said it's actually an easy task to rewrite the standards - as long as the mayor and council are on board.

But neither the mayor nor council members would answer questions this week about the effort, saying Spencer has not formally submitted his project, and the zone change is still before the Planning Commission.

That group had been scheduled to consider the zone change during its early January meeting, but the fire marshal ended the meeting early when about 150 people overfilled city offices.

The strong show of protest echoed an earlier anti-project move: Resident Mark Riddle said he collected petitions with 81 signatures in a single December day.

Riddle lives with his wife, Laurel Backman, in a historic home built on Center Street in 1868, or 13 years after the town was incorporated. That house, in Backman's family for eight generations, could abut the commercial development if the zone change is approved.

Riddle said he would put the issue before voters and could easily garner the 3,000 signatures to force a referendum. He believes a majority of residents don't want to forget the city's history, to add traffic or to block mountain views.

The developer, Spencer, acknowledged some of those concerns and promised to try to mitigate as many as he could. But he added that Pleasant Grove needs the downtown development to breathe life into the area.

Meanwhile, several downtown-business owners fear he will try to take their shops.

Mary Ellen Jackman, along with husband Steve, runs an electronics store out of a building that's in the National Register of Historic Places. She suggests the high-rise project move closer to Interstate 15 where high-density projects already exist.

"It's not that we don't want to see progress, and it's not that we don't want our downtown to be as vital as it can be," Jackman said. "But we certainly don't live in the middle of a cornfield. There's a lot of high-rise business like his from the freeway in to State Street."

And Mark Ryan, who owns a nearby jewelry and real-estate business, said Spencer's project is all about profit - and not about what's best for the city.

Spencer said he's wrongly being painted as an evil, money-grubbing developer.

He said he can keep historic flavor by maintaining the old buildings' facades. He would build his mixed-use tower behind them. And, he said, he can do it all without buying out properties.

"I'm not a big stinkin' rich guy, and I'm not stealing anybody's property," Spencer said. "Anytime any growth happens, someone, somewhere will have some way - or some reason - it shouldn't happen."

Spencer is waiting for the city to change zoning before he submits his project, and he still would need an ordinance changed that would allow for a structure 10 times taller than neighboring homes.

He hopes construction on the building, with 20 retail shops on the ground floor, can begin by year's end. He acknowledges he may have to wait longer.

In response to residents' concerns, Spencer said change is inevitable and needed.

"You can celebrate the past, but you can't let yourself be shackled by the past. You need to embrace what's going to work now," he said.

"Some of the folks who are against this may be protecting something that disappeared a long time ago . . . I believe the [19th century] builders of Pleasant Grove would be ashamed to see what our downtown has become, and they'd be screaming from the graves saying, 'Do something.' "

sgehrke@sltrib.com

What's next?

The Pleasant Grove Planning Commission will consider a zoning change for the city's historic center at its meeting Thursday. The commission is scheduled to meet at 6:30 p.m. at the Pleasant Grove Junior High auditorium, at 810 N. 100 East.