Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes
- The city of Ivins, Washington County, faces tension over short-term rentals amid rapid resort growth.
- Mayor Chris Hart notes rising property values and housing affordability challenges in Ivins.
- A community group opposes developments, citing negative impact on affordable housing and environment.
IVINS, Washington County — Few cities in Utah have seen explosive growth over the past two decades quite like Ivins.
Founded as a small farming community and suburb of St. George, Ivins is surrounded by red rock mountains and is now home to some of the largest resorts in the state: Black Desert, Red Mountain and the Retreat, among others.
The outskirts of Ivins were rezoned for touristic development approximately 20 years ago in hopes of creating a commercial tax base to generate city revenue instead of relying on property taxes from residents, Ivins Mayor Chris Hart told KSL.com.
But between massive development in southern Utah generally, a growing housing shortage across the state and the rise of local tourism, Ivins is pricing out — and angering — some locals.
"We've gone from being probably the lowest property value on average for a community in southern Utah 40 or 50 years ago to being now the highest," Hart said. "The average cost of a home in Ivins is a couple hundred thousand dollars more than the average cost of a home in the next highest price city in the county, so that makes it doubly hard for us to try and achieve some level of housing affordability."
"Everyone knows that short-term rentals do nothing to help affordable housing. It is our understanding that they do quite the opposite, taking up space and limiting supply, therefore driving up prices," said Mike Cook, a representative of Defenders of Greater Ivins, a community group that opposes what some residents consider to be irresponsible development.
A brief history of resorts, resistance
The Defenders of Greater Ivins was founded to oppose the 2022 rezoning of 113 acres of residential/agricultural land on the outskirts of Ivins for mixed residential/commercial use. Utah's School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration owned the property and sold it to Rize Capital to develop the resort and rental complex known as the Retreat.
SITLA is an independent state agency that is given four sections of land per Utah township and has a state constitutional mandate to sell or develop the land to generate revenue that funds public education in the state. In the case of the Retreat, SITLA gains revenue in "a standard trust lands development contract, so essentially, we get paid a percentage of the gross selling price of lots and of homes," said Kyle Pasley, managing director of real estate for SITLA.
"On this particular project, there is also a clause that talks about receiving a residual income off rentals going forward, whether that's hotel rooms, nightly rentals, or any hospitality-based rental. It's not huge, I think it's 2%, of ongoing revenue from those rentals that come back to the trust beneficiaries," Pasley said.
We've gone from being probably the lowest property value on average for a community in southern Utah 40 or 50 years ago to being now the highest.
–Ivins Mayor Chris Hart
Originally, Rize Capital confirmed it planned to build 1,035 units of resort and short-term rental rooms in multiple-story buildings, but Hart said the idea caused significant community uproar. Defenders of Greater Ivins sued to prevent the development of the land, arguing the Ivins City Council broke procedure on the vote — but the lawsuit failed.
"It was almost presented in a way that emphasized the state's ability to do this without city consent," Hart acknowledged. "The resistance that the residents of the city put up led to SITLA working with the city, with groups of residents and so forth, to try to come up with a compromise design."
"After hearing significant community feedback, we undertook a comprehensive redesign that substantially reduced the project's density," Rize Capital said in a statement to KSL. The revised design includes 603 units with 210 long-term rental houses and 393 resort units, the retention of 20 acres of publicly accessible open space, 2.5 acres of preserved lava rock formations, and environmental and infrastructural commitments to Ivins, among other features.
"The economic benefits to Ivins will be substantial, with independent analysis by Urban and Main projecting a $16.6 million net positive impact for the city over 25 years," Rize said. "In addition, the development is forecasted to generate over $1.9 billion in job creation and local economic activity through visitor and resident spending."
A combination of nearby resort amenities and natural and constructed "buffer zones" will also encourage tourists to stay within the resort area and allow residents to use amenities without feeling encroached upon by tourists, both Hart and Rize told KSL independently.
But in December of 2022, a survey of Ivins residents showed 46% disapproval, 26% approval, and 27% neutrality for how the city had managed growth over the past five years. The same survey showed over 70% of residents disapproved of high-density housing projects like condominiums and apartments.
Sharon Gillespie and Sharon Barton helped gather survey responses and were later elected members of Ivins City Council in 2024, championing slowing the growth of the city in their campaigns.
In recent months, even Black Desert, which has been commended for its unobtrusive handling of the PGA Tour earlier this year, has become a flashpoint with residents over its installation of temporary bleachers for the LPGA later this year that obstruct residents' views of lava rock formations, St. George News has reported.
"When is enough enough?"
"When is enough enough?" wrote Ivins City Councilman Mike Scott in a 2022 blog post titled, "Why I'm Against Short-Term Rentals" he wanted to cite.
"In 2015, Ivins had 158 units of housing for tourists in three properties. ... In just a few years, we have grown tourist accommodations more than tenfold, from 158 units to more than 1,700 units. And 1,700 units is very significant since all of Ivins has only about 4,500 residential units."
"On any given night, Ivins may have more transient occupants in short-term rentals than permanent residents," said Cook. "People will be leaving the property every day in their cars to go shopping, recreating and searching for restaurants. They will be driving through the small residential town of Ivins to get to wherever they need to go."
When asked about the future of short-term rental projects in Ivins, Hart said, "I dare say that most of them have been approved at some level, but there is still a number yet to be, yet to be built."
"Black Desert is the biggest of the developments that we have and likely will be the biggest ever, certainly in our city," he continued, noting that construction on hotel units and amenities are slated to continue for years. Red Mountain Resort, he noted, also has 25 acres of undeveloped land slated for additional lodging likely to be built when Black Desert is completed.
"But the sense around our community is that, 'Hey, folks, we got enough,' and most of the zoning that we have available for that use has been bought up and is in some stage of planning or approval," Hart concluded.
