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Vineyard • Sarah Miller biked with her 5-year-old son on a hot August afternoon to a vibrant new park in Utah City, the walkable community rising on 700 acres in the heart of Vineyard and envisioned as its new downtown.

They rode along the Greenline, a wide promenade flanked by pickleball, tennis and basketball courts that runs through the development, from the Vineyard FrontRunner train station toward glittering Utah Lake. She moved to Vineyard with her kids to live by the shore, she said, and she’s enjoyed watching Utah City go up near her home.

Its first two swanky apartment complexes, called 120 and 220 Bend, were finished in February, though only a few balconies had patio furniture. She and her son had the park, with its array of slides and wooden play structures to explore, almost to themselves.

“It’s very quiet for now. I imagine as it grows, more people will come in and it will feel a bit more alive,” Miller said. “But I think it’s beautiful.”

Utah City’s developer is building on its rare opportunity to create a transit-oriented, high-density community from scratch in the middle of one of the state’s fastest-growing metro areas — with strong buy-in from past Vineyard officials, new tools for government to help with financing and significant investments from taxpayers.

But Utah City is now facing heightened scrutiny from a new Vineyard mayor and new City Council members who say they have a mandate from voters to roll back policies they argue were too deferential to developers. These leaders are skeptical both of the vision for Utah City and of the leeway and incentives provided to its developer.

“Maybe it can work, maybe it can’t,” said City Council member Jacob Wood, who took office in January. “It’s a gamble, but they shouldn’t be gambling with city money.”

The vast Utah City property was once home to Geneva Steel, an industrial complex built during World War II that went defunct in the 2000s. Former Vineyard officials created tax incentives to clean up the site and agreed to allow thousands of housing units and high-rise buildings to be built there, to help lure developers. The Utah Transit Authority built a stop at the site in 2022 for FrontRunner, the commuter train that runs up and down the Wasatch Front.

Flagborough LLC, the developer of Utah City, says it’s shaping a shining example of how Utah and other Western states can abandon suburban sprawl, with a downtown focused on people instead of cars and a solution to the smog that plagues the region every summer and winter.

“The biggest benefit of this project, the greatest opportunity, is that the project’s so big,” said Nate Hutchinson, a partner in both Flagborough and The Flagship Companies, which is spearheading development in Utah City and is one of the largest housing developers in the state.

“We’ve been working with a lot of people who’ve done this really well all over the country,” said Pete Evans, a co-managing partner of Utah City and Flagship. “We think we have a pretty good formula on how to make it viable.”

Longtime Utah County resident David Lauret, another of the new Vineyard City Council members who took office in January, questions whether too many public resources have been committed to that plan. City Council members also target the project’s density, which is partly funded using property tax incentives.

“The problem we have is many of the citizens feel they’re trying to use our money … toward building their business,” Lauret said. “It’s all rental facilities. We’re basically helping to hand them a business they’ll make money with in perpetuity.”

The city doled out $4.5 million to Utah City developers in 2026 alone, and council members interviewed for this story said they’re reviewing what those payments covered.

Walking through the city of the future

Bella’s Market, a grocery store with sparkling floor-to-ceiling glass windows, opened in Utah City late last year across the street from the FrontRunner station. Next door is the newly opened Fini Pizza, a slice shop recruited from New York City.

Utah City’s immaculate water-wise landscaping and green space have communal fire pits and conversation areas with candy-striped sun umbrellas. At the end of the Greenline lies the Utah City playground, topped by a spherical — and climbable — centerpiece that seemingly floats like a hot air balloon. Taken together, the development has the feel of a vintage boardwalk or century-old World’s Fair promenade, minus the crowds.

These are welcome amenities for Vineyard, which has surged from a sleepy town of 139 in 2010 to a booming city of about 16,000 today. Gently curving paseos beckon pedestrians to continue walking and discover what’s ahead – usually a small plaza with more sitting areas and common spaces. Lobbies for the apartment complexes are decked out in board games, books and vinyl records.

“The community’s rad,” said Cameron Larsen, a 34-year-old father of four who moved into a three-bedroom apartment with his family in Utah City last February. “The units are pretty bougie.”

Larsen was about to start a new job and expected to take the FrontRunner for his commute. His wife, 29-year-old Aunica Larsen, walks to work at Bella’s. “This is literally my favorite place I’ve ever lived,” she said. “It’s all very vibey.”

The developers have thrown in all kinds of perks to seal the deal, like ski passes to Sundance and unlimited access to the Peloton fitness center and future swimming pool.

Strolling or cycling through it all, visitors and residents likely won’t think much about vehicle traffic or crosswalks. That’s a big win, according to Jeff Speck, a lauded urban designer Flagship tapped for the project.

“The question isn’t getting Americans to give up their cars. It’s creating an environment in which they just want to use them less,” said Speck, author of the 2012 book “Walkable City: How Downtown Saves America, One Step at a Time.”

New urbanists like Speck see value in cities where neighborhoods incorporate homes for the wealthy next to homes for the working class and civic buildings like town halls. They include narrow streets, bike paths and sidewalks, and look a lot like the cities that were built in the 18^th and 19th centuries before cars rose to prominence in Western life.

The partners behind Utah City said they want wellness to be at the heart of their development, from the pickleball courts to the Peloton gym to free yoga in the park. “[We] try to be less online, mad at each other,” Hutchinson said, “and more just in real life, connecting with each other.”

They expect to finish building Utah City in 15 to 20 years.

Do Utahns want density?

In its earlier years, Utah City enjoyed strong support from Vineyard leaders. In 2022, the city applied for a special state designation for the project and succeeded in making it a Housing and Transit Reinvestment Zone. The program encourages multifamily residential and commercial clusters around transit hubs.

In these zones, as land values rise — and raise more property taxes — local governments capture that new tax income and use it to pay developers for up to 25 years to fund infrastructure like parking garages and utilities, as well as “vertical construction costs” — the additional expense of building above four stories.

But members of the new city council doubt high-rise, high-density housing can work among Utah County’s ever-expanding freeways, its frequent gridlock, its seas of subdivisions with single-family homes.

“The plans are ambitious,” Vineyard Mayor Zack Stratton, who took office in January, said of Utah City. “This is the reality: No one up and down the Wasatch Front wants density.”

In some ways, it’s an old story in a new location.

“Planners go in with the best intentions,” said Sarah Moser, a professor of urban and cultural geography at McGill University. “Everyone wants mixed-use, dense, walkable, bikeable cities, but the population is not there.”

In other words, people like the idea of riding bikes or taking trains, but when it comes down to it, they prefer to drive. That may especially be the case for Utah residents who are drawn to the state because of activities where a car is necessary — like skiing or visiting national parks.

In 2023, 78% of Americans and closer to 79% of Utahns drove to work, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. In Utah County, just under 66% of its more urban population drives alone to work. Only 10% of Utah County workers carpool, and less than 2% take public transportation.

The City of Orem, which borders Vineyard, decided it was done with multifamily, dense rental properties last year and now prioritizes building more single-family homes.

Utah City “doesn’t feel like Utah,” said Wood, from Vineyard’s City Council. “Maybe that’s the point.”

In a January promotional video, Utah City partner Craig Cannon boasts of the “incredible” development rights Vineyard granted the project, allowing “unlimited” height and density.

Some new council members bristled, but Lauret acknowledged that Utah City’s zoning remains part of city code. “I’m not thrilled about it,” he said, “but there’s not much we can do.”

‘Pay a premium to live’

In the same video, Evans discusses creating a community where “people will pay a premium to live.” That’s another concern new Vineyard leaders say they have — affordability. “They’re in the market of selling a luxury lifestyle,” Wood said.

He figures most students and young professionals in the area can’t afford to live in Utah City. Studio units at the two current apartment buildings range from $1,325 to $1,410 a month. That rent does not include parking, pet rent or most utilities, and is based on a 17-month lease.

The average rent for a studio in Provo, the county seat and home of Brigham Young University, is $1,199 as of late September, according to Rent.com, while the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment there is $1,521. Utah City’s two-bedroom units currently start at about $2,500.

Wood, 25, said he would like to buy a house one day himself, but with his single income, homeownership feels increasingly out of reach. He said he wants the developers to build affordable retail, too, like a Ross Dress for Less.

In Vineyard’s application to create the housing and transit zone, the city, Flagship and other supporters asserted that increasing the availability of lower-cost housing was a key objective for Utah City. It would include “2,000+” attainable units, which cost 30% or less of a household’s income, the application said, and “thousands of housing units” near the FrontRunner stop with “affordable Utah County rents.”

Now a City Council member, Jacob Holdaway is a descendant of the Latter-day Saint pioneer family that settled Vineyard and named it after table grapes they grew. He dislikes how past city administrations have guided the city’s growth and has helped lead a community movement that’s cynical about developers.

“When you hear the sales pitch, you’re sold on the thing,” Holdaway said of Utah City’s pitch about its housing. “It was a complete bait and switch. They put this carrot in front of you, and it never happens.”

He wants to see more homes for sale, not rentals, he added.

But the developers say they plan to construct “thousands” of housing units, including single-family homes that will be among the few thousand that residents can buy instead of rent. They just want to build the surrounding parks, shops and eateries first.

“That was always the plan,” Hutchinson said. “To say it’s a bait and switch … is factually not even close to being true.”

He said the project is defining affordable based on a standard from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which says “low income” households are those that make up to 80% of area median income. For this population, Hutchinson said, almost all of the current units are affordable.

In Utah County, that means having an annual income of $95,350 for a four-person family and $66,750 for a single person. Federal guidelines have long set 30% as the maximum a household should spend on rent, which would be about $2,380 per month for a family of four and $1,670 for a single person.

Flagborough LLC was described in earlier documents as a joint venture between The Flagship Companies and Woodbury Corporation. But Woodbury Corporation confirmed in early 2026 that it had quietly stepped away from the project. A spokesperson would not say why.

Flagborough appears to have found new sponsorship through Sandlot Partners, an Orem-based private equity firm founded in 2020 that invests in real estate, oil and gas. Sandlot posted the January video.

Hutchinson declined to discuss Woodbury or any current backers of Utah City. “We still locally own and control a majority of the project,” he said, “and we care about it.”

The council’s new scrutiny

Vineyard’s Redevelopment Agency also provides financial support to Utah City, such as paying for the cleanup of the old Geneva steel mill, which once covered nearly 2,000 acres. An investigation by the Utah State Auditor last year found Vineyard’s RDA hadn’t properly reported big payments to developers citywide, while a city-commissioned audit found poor oversight and management of RDA money. Utah City isn’t specifically named in the state audit, but city officials said they still can’t say how much taxpayer money the RDA has paid developers, including those at Utah City.

“We have contracts,” Hutchinson said, “and we keep them.”

In a controversial move, the City Council recently hired a panel of residents to probe the RDA’s past contracts and payments, including those tied to Utah City. So far, council member Lauret said, “Have we uncovered anything earth shaking? No.”

Vineyard once planned to build a $35 million city hall in Utah City as a civic anchor, but Stratton, now the new mayor, led a signature-gathering effort against it. The developers had intended to donate land for the project, but opponents decried the building as too expensive and the prior mayor and council abandoned the idea.

Former Council member Ezra Nair, who also worked as Vineyard’s city manager from February 2022 until November 2023, publicly supported the Utah City development.

“Unfortunately, it’s a lot easier to get people angry about something than get people excited about something,” Nair said in an interview in June. “Building takes time, but tearing down goes really fast.”

Nair resigned his council seat on Aug. 30 to take a job at Provo City.

Vineyard’s previous city council also approved the creation of 10 public infrastructure districts, or PIDs, for Utah City in 2023. These are quasi-governmental agencies that issue bonds to fund public infrastructure like roads and water pipelines, though districts in or next to a Housing and Transit Reinvestment Zone can also provide financing for private improvements.

The first PID for Utah City paid $52.3 million to Flagborough LLC in May. Hutchinson said it will be used for public infrastructure like roads.

Despite resistance from the new City Council, Utah City developers remain undeterred. As businesses succeed there, increased revenues from sales taxes can shift the burden of funding city services away from property owners and residents.

“The priority for everybody,” Evans said, “is how do we create a great sales tax base and ensure the success of the future of the city?”

In 2028, Utah City will become home to a Huntsman Cancer Institute hospital and research facility, which offers immense opportunities for local employment. On the east side of the FrontRunner tracks, the developers expect to build light industrial and biomedical facilities that will complement a future Utah Valley University campus.

Even skeptics of Utah City call the hospital and university big wins. “That’s exciting for the state,” Stratton said, “exciting for our city.”