Developer wants to turn Sherwood Hills into 130 home subdivision

Sherwood Hills could be turned into a 120 unit housing subdivision.

WELLSVILLE – Sherwood Hills, a once-pristine hotel location nestled close to the Wellsville Mountains in one of the narrowest and steepest ranges in the Rockies, may soon become a 130-home subdivision reaching across both sides of Hwy 89-91. The new name for the subdivision could be Bridle Path Estates if approved.

At one time Sherwood Hills was a hot spot for proms, weddings, reunions and other gatherings with its restaurant and hotel. The place also had an outdoor swimming pool and an outdoor theater. For a few years there was a family that had a stable and horses across the highway. They entertained people giving wagon rides up a down the old Wellsville Road and cooking Dutch oven dinners.

In 1973, Mark Ballif put a 9-hole golf course along Hwy 89-9, in front the resort. He passed away in 2014 and left the ground to his wife and children.

Richard Knapp currently owns the Sherwood Hills resort portion of the land, bought the hotel and property and turned it into a substance abuse resort.

The developer for new Bridle Path Estates is Reeves and Associates, located in Riverdale and have been around for several decades developing subdivisions.  They have presented preliminary plans and aerial photographs to Wellsville Planning and Zoning and City Council.

Wellsville City Manager Scott Wells said the new subdivision has not passed the final approval yet.

“There are three levels of approval: concept, preliminary and then final approval,” he said. “The developers have had their concept approved by the Planning and Zoning and City Council.”

The preliminary approval has not been submitted yet. Reeves and Associates still have several things to do before it can get preliminary approval.

“For preliminary approval process they have to turn in more plans,” Wells said. “We are working with our planner and engineer to make sure everything meets the requirements before the approval is granted.”

The city manager said he expects that to be done in the next five to six weeks.

“If they meet and live by all the requirements and codes it will be tough to turn them down,” he said. “Owners of the property have rights, too.”

Tom Leishman, 87, the retired owner of Tom’s Service along the highway in Wellsville said he remembered the resort being built in the ‘60’s.

When they first started they had a restaurant and they served a damn good meal at a reasonable price,” he said. “All the booths were full about every night and if you had to wait too long, they would bring out shrimp and sauce until we were seated.”

Leishman said in the winter when the snow was so deep it was hard to get in, they plowed it and the restaurant was still filled with hungry customers.

“I think the restaurant and hotel was a hit and I think it could have made it,” Leishman said.

Leishman said he didn’t care for the new plan for the acreage almost halfway between Logan and Brigham City. He’s worried about the water, sewer and the extra traffic crossing the highway.

Wellsville resident Glenn Ames said he is part of a group of citizens that are trying to stop the development and turn it into a permanent recreational space.

“I don’t want the development at all,” he said. “I don’t think it is the proper fit for multiple reasons.”

The group wants to stop the development first before they begin to raise funds to buy the property. He would like to get Cache Trails Alliance, a non-profit involved in maintaining and creating new trails, in Sherwood Hills property.

“The property will have to be purchased by the U.S. Forest Service, Cache County or Wellsville City or some other entity,” he said. “I don’t know what that looks like yet.”

The city council would have to stop the development before the group could get involved.

We are working to get commitments from different agencies to stop the development in a legislative fashion,” he said. “The property has been annexed into Wellsville City so if there is some way we can stop the project we might be able to pull this off.”

If people want to get involved, they can call Ames at (435) 512-9322.

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14 Comments

  • JD October 1, 2021 at 7:49 am Reply

    That’s too bad. The traffic in the canyon is already more dangerous since the County approved the gravel pit at the summit. Now this? 130 homes, up to 2 vehicles a home, 260 new cars entering onto an already deathly road? With back to back gravel Trucks and other Highway commercial semi trucks? Somebody let the coroners know because they’re going to be busy.

  • L Allen October 1, 2021 at 8:16 am Reply

    What a wonderful place to have a home. Now if can call the canyon my its proper name of Wellsville vs the ‘S’ word 🙂

    • Don October 1, 2021 at 5:23 pm Reply

      You and Vic Saunders seem to be the only two people in the world who care. Its name is what people call it, and people call it Sardine Canyon.

      • W Lee October 4, 2021 at 11:04 am Reply

        Hopefully they will build an over and/or underpasses so that traffic can exit and enter the highway safely. This should be required by the Wellsville or the state for this large of a development in such a busy road.

        I find it interesting when people make the argument, once they know learn what is correct/proper name of the canyon, to continue to use this fallacious name of Sardine and do not embrace the correct name of Wellsville Canyon

        • Johnny October 6, 2021 at 7:55 pm Reply

          The plan is to have an overpass or underpass so that cars can cross back and forth, and also so that cars turning onto the highway will only have to turn right no matter which side they are coming from and which direction they are heading. There won’t be any turning left across two lanes of traffic.

        • Don October 6, 2021 at 8:12 pm Reply

          The highway is owned by the state, and they will require it, whether or not Wellsville wants an underpass.

          I wouldn’t call the name Sardine fallacious. There are many canyons in there – Box Elder Canyon, Dry Canyon, the original Sardine Canyon, Wellsville Canyon, and others. People call it Sardine, because that was one of the original canyons the route ran through. When the road changed location, the name didn’t, because people were still driving between Brigham and Wellsville. Do you call the side closest to Brigham City by its proper name of Box Elder Canyon? Do you switch when referring to the middle as Dry Canyon? And then again as you’re closing in on Wellsville do you change again? Nobody needs three names for the pathway, and Sardine as one of the original canyons the road passed through became the one that the whole route was known by. Again, as the road changed to go through a different canyon, the route itself didn’t need a new name. Sardine still applied.

  • HJensen October 1, 2021 at 11:52 am Reply

    Bridal Path Estates or Bridle Path Estates? Is it a route to a wedding venue or a trail to ride horses on? 🙂

    • Don October 1, 2021 at 5:25 pm Reply

      It’s supposed to be Bridle. Five minutes to check the minutes from the meetings that have been taking place for months would have fixed this mistake. I almost thought we were on the HJ website for a minute!

  • Bubba from the block October 3, 2021 at 12:08 am Reply

    Nice another 260 plus car in the Valley. It will not be long before Mantua has a stoplight on 89. Any idea where the water is coming from?

    • Kevin October 6, 2021 at 11:20 am Reply

      Good question. My father was carpenter who worked for Harmon Construction when they built Sherwood Hills. He use to point out the pump house that he worked on, (near the big curve) that supplied water to Sherwood Hills.

    • Hello October 6, 2021 at 7:57 pm Reply

      It is coming from the well right next to it, which Wellsville put in to water the golf course. Since the golf course is going away, all that water is available for the homes going in.

  • John October 5, 2021 at 2:48 pm Reply

    Developers get what they want. Just look at out valley. I think a better use would be recreational. Such as an organized paid camping park with full hookups. Places for people to ride atv’s and bike or hike. Keeping most of the area looking like it does – beautiful. And i do miss the golf course. It was my favorite. Sad to see it wont be revived.

    • Johnny October 6, 2021 at 7:59 pm Reply

      If cities don’t want this kind of thing, they should be more proactive about their zoning. Waiting until someone proposes something that you don’t like but is totally appropriate for the zoning is too late.

  • Marta June 30, 2022 at 4:32 pm Reply

    Wondering about mountain biking at Sherwood Hills. We are headed to Bear Lake for a few days and wondered about stopping by for a ride? I remember mountain bike races there with my kids and it looked so beautiful! I was hoping to get to ride it. Are the trails open there?

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