IVINS — The Black Desert Resort project is coming along in Ivins. Its developer is just asking folks to “pardon the dust.”
The first phase of the hotel-residences-shopping resort, an 18-hole golf course designed by noted golf course architect Tom Weiskopf, is 70% complete, according to the Ivins Department of Public Works and now expected to be ready this fall.
But with 650 acres of open space being developed overall and several yellow construction trucks on the property, there’s bound to be a little dust in the air.
High winds on March 28 kicked up a great deal of dust in Ivins and the surrounding communities. The Black Desert site was far from the only spot in Southern Utah that was a source of that dust, but with its large areas of dirt, it was one of the more apparent to blame.
While already having dust mediation procedures in place, the resort’s developer went on the local Internet message board at Nextdoor.com a day later and posted a public apology.
Patrick Manning, the managing partner of Enlaw LLC, which is building the resort, told St. George News said he is doing all he can to maintain trust with the public with the project that will include a 150-room hotel and a culinary and retail neighborhood that will be a first of its kind in Southern Utah.
“The dust comes from every job site, but our site is bigger,” Manning said. “I think the residents generally like us and trust us, but the project is 400% more rooms than the current largest hospitality property in the state. So I think it’s just the scale that gets people hand-wringing.”
As part of additional dust-control measures, Manning said an additional water truck, which douses the ground to keep dust from flying off, has been added to the water trucks already on site. Also, construction operations now will stop when the wind is at or exceeds 15 mph.
In the post on Nextdoor, Manning said, “My most sincere apologies to anyone impacted by the super high winds and the ensuing dirt/dust. I feel terrible. We are already exceeding the requirements of dust mitigation but taking additional measures as well going fwd (sic).”
But Manning told St. George News he knows he can’t please everyone.
Some residents have complained about the three-foot-high black fabric fence that rings the construction site that includes promotions for the future resort.
“I don’t think anyone would have said anything about the fence if it were the length of a normal building site,” Manning said. “Obviously, it’s not a one-size-fits-all for the residents as they each have their own thoughts and opinions.”
Manning has already has attended public meetings with Ivins City Council, which refused his request for the city to provide $5 million to the project through tax breaks but ultimately won approval for a smaller-scale plan that provided funding through bonds. After some debate, the resort also won an exemption to the city’s height limit.
The Black Desert Resort, which has dropped the “at Entrada” from its name, ultimately will include a family residential complex that will come complete with a lazy river for play on the site, with water for that and the golf course supplied by the resort’s own purchased water supply, rather than the city’s water. The culinary village, similar to what is seen at The Grove in Los Angeles and Town Square in Las Vegas, also will include a culinary school.
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