Traverse Mountain residents opposing Perry Commercial's bid to rezone 5 acres near the Outlets at Traverse Mountain are making a pointed legal case: the developer already used every dwelling unit it was ever allocated on the parcel, and Lehi's own code prohibits granting new rights without something in return.

The arguments, filed on the city's Engage Lehi comment portal, go beyond general opposition. Residents argue Perry exhausted all 260 dwelling units the 2012 Traverse Mountain Area Plan assigned to its "Perry D" allocation, then borrowed 48 more from an adjacent parcel to build The Vue's 308 apartments, leaving zero remaining development rights on the 5-acre site at 633 West Sunrise Way.

Now Perry wants to convert that same ground from High Density Residential to Highway Commercial. The company has not said what it would build there.

"Every development right attached to this ground has been fully monetized. Please don't invent new vested rights from thin air," Rob Ludlow, a 20-year Traverse Mountain resident from the Woodhaven neighborhood, wrote on the portal.

Ludlow and other commenters cite two sections of Lehi's Development Code. Section 06.030 requires master-planned communities to function as "one cohesive complex land use" rather than "an aggregation of individual, unrelated buildings." Residents call this the third commercial carve-out from the same residential pod, following a Central Bank branch in 2018 and a medical office building in 2025.

Section 06.170 requires applicants seeking to exceed baseline plan standards to offer "extraordinary public contributions," with the burden on the applicant. Residents point to a precedent: when Riverbend amended the same Traverse Mountain Area Plan in 2019, Lehi required roughly 35 acres of dedicated open space and the permanent removal of 193 units. Perry is offering nothing comparable, they argue.

David Wilcox, a Traverse Mountain homeowner, raised a separate concern. He noted Perry is simultaneously pushing to convert commercial land near the Whole Foods site about a mile away into ultra-high-density residential at 49 units per acre.

The Lehi Planning Commission held a public hearing on the request Aug. 13. The commission's role is advisory; the City Council holds final authority on the area plan amendment, but no council vote date has been scheduled.

Perry Commercial, a Murray-based firm active in the Mountain West since the late 1970s, first floated the concept at the Planning Commission's April 23 meeting, as we reported when the hearing drew opposition Aug. 15. The company broke ground in late May on The Collective at Morning Vista, a 134,000-square-foot retail center at Timpanogos Highway and Morning Vista Road targeting a 2028 opening.

The Engage Lehi portal remains open for public comments before the item advances to the council.