Cedar City councilors, developers debate who should pay for 12‑inch waterline to loop 3900 West

Cedar City Council heard a detailed briefing Feb. 19 on the need to install a 12‑inch waterline along 3900 West to loop a single feed that currently serves Magnolia Fields, Iron Crest and other developments, and to restore fire flow to a state standard the city uses for fire protection.

The presentation by Tim Watson of Watson Engineering said his client, Scott Faylor, is pursuing Magnolia Fields phases 2 and 3 and that modelling by city engineers indicates the southern tie is required for redundancy and fire protection. Watson gave an engineer’s estimate that boring under the railroad and Highway 56 and installing roughly two‑thirds of a mile of waterline could cost on the order of several hundred thousand dollars; he said the crossing alone previously cost about $130,000 in a different project and that the line installation segment is also substantial (figures cited in the meeting were preliminary and provided by Watson as ballpark estimates).

The council’s engineering staff and city consultants described the problem as regional: a single feed at Lund Highway and Highway 56 currently supplies multiple subdivisions, and city hydraulic modelling shows fire flow in that…