Neighbors call it ‘basically a homeless camp.’ Unpermitted Utah County farmers market remains open.

Dorothy Durrant has operated a farmers market on her property north of Utah Lake since at least 2020.

The lot between Center Street and Country Lane, off a spur called Farmers Market Street, is home to her Lehi Farmers Market on Fridays and Saturdays. It has also been a recreational vehicle park, petting zoo and a launch site for hot air balloon and helicopter rides, with food trucks, tractor rides and firework shows.

On paper, the more than 4-acre lot isn’t permitted for many of the attractions hosted there, including the namesake farmers market, said Bryce Armstrong, associate director of Utah County Community Development. It isn’t even technically in Lehi.

County officials have tried for years to bring the property in an unincorporated part of the county into compliance with zoning and land use ordinances, sending at least two notices to comply between 2020 and 2023.

The plot sits in an agricultural pocket, bordered on its back by a subdivision built around 2007 that has billed itself as the Country Lane estates. Utah County is home to a skyrocketing population — and that rapid growth means neighbors are living in increasing proximity to each other. This is happening as home prices continue to rise.

Durrant’s neighbors have submitted dozens of complaints in recent months. They say she is not obeying county laws and they have safety concerns.

The conflict has pitted county officials who are trying to enforce ordinances, as well as “exhausted” neighbors, against one defiant property owner, whose land dates back to the 1980s but that has only been in her possession since 2015, records show.

“They’re encroaching on what I ought to be able to do on my own land,” Durrant said, “and they’re encroaching as badly as they are because I have terrible neighbors.”

Law enforcement made two arrests at the property in April.

Market operator Larry Jarvis, who is Durrant’s husband, was arrested and later charged with failure to register as a sex offender, a third-degree felony. Prior to his arrest, he wore an Elmo costume to entertain children at the market and gave them tractor rides on the property, according to a news release from the Utah County Sheriff’s Office. (Jarvis has since updated his registry; a spokesperson with the sheriff’s office said as of May 16. At least two sex offenders were known to be living on the property.)

Later that month, a 33-year-old man staying in a couple’s RV on the property was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. Mason Wright was later charged with aggravated assault, after police said he drunkenly fired a BB gun at a man and woman and threatened the woman with a knife, according to charging documents.

The county’s enforcement efforts culminated May 11, when prosecutors charged Durrant with 15 misdemeanors for alleged land use ordinance and zoning violations.

It’s a rare move to involve law enforcement, Armstrong said, but the sheriff’s office was asked to investigate Durrant’s property as part of an “expedited enforcement process” after the county learned it was being used as an RV park and campsite. Typically, he said, land use ordinance enforcement “can be time consuming.”

Durrant may face jail time if convicted, but Utah County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sgt. Spencer Cannon said it’s unlikely for such minor offenses. It’s more likely she will be fined. Even once the case is adjudicated, he said there’s no promise that neighbors’ concerns will be quelled.

“I told [the neighbors] that, ‘You know, you need to be prepared for the possibility that she will come into compliance and will be allowed to hold the farmers market there, if she meets all the requirements that are there,” Cannon said.

He noted Wednesday that Durrant has made some progress, but “we believe that she hasn’t made as much progress as she could have, and should have, at this point.”

County records show that Durrant hasn’t paid taxes on the property since 2020. Armstrong declined to say if Durrant has paid the fines she had accrued for failure to comply with land use ordinances. She didn’t respond when The Salt Lake Tribune asked.

Durrant did tell The Tribune that property owners should have more freedom.

“The law needs to change a little bit,” she told The Tribune. “The laws need to change.”

After a nearly 10-minute phone call, she asked The Tribune to send her questions via email. She did not respond to those questions prior to publication.

Neighbor complaints

The county sent Durrant its first notice to comply in October 2020, alleging she was running a haunted house out of her barn without a permit. While Durrant had applied for such a permit, the notice stated that she hadn’t yet been approved.

It added that the lot “appears to be operating as a Farmers Market.”

Deputy Utah County Attorney Diana Flores followed up on the notice two months later, telling Durrant she was in violation of county ordinances and threatening legal action if the problems weren’t fixed within 30 days. Armstrong said prosecutors never filed charges.

Durrant told The Tribune that she complied with the order to shut down the haunted house.

“We closed it down because the pieces of s--- in the county would not let us do it,” she said.

County officials told The Tribune they received coronavirus restriction-related complaints regarding Durrant’s property during the height of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The more recent neighbor complaints, obtained through an open records request, focus mainly on sanitation, safety and new people living on the property.

Neighbors said they saw people dump sewage from their RVs onto the ground, or saw people urinating on the fence line separating Durrant’s lot from adjacent properties, which are valued at between $740,000 and more than $1 million, records show.

“It has turned into basically a homeless camp with people being disrespectful and rude to those living around this land,” one complaint read. “This used to be a safe beautiful neighborhood and this farmers market has neighbors on edge worried for their safety.”

In March, Ashley Sylvester sent a letter to county officials on behalf of community members, outlining numerous complaints and concerns about the property. The “full report of the community findings” decried “trash, debris, fire hazards, unpermitted events, public urination, rental property violations, major health department concerns and violations, etc[.].” The letter included visual aids.

“This kind of environment invites crime, theft, and illegal behavior. This has brought a very alarming demographic of individuals to our neighborhood,” according to the letter. “It has become a great concern for the safety of the families of our community.”

Armstrong said when neighbors issue complaints with the county, “we let them know that we are aware of some of the seriousness of the allegations, and that’s why we’re taking an expedited approach.”

Sylvester declined to be interviewed, saying in an email that community members were exhausted by the situation and needed a break.

“The lack of progress has begun to [a]ffect us all mentally,” she wrote in the email.

Good deal turned bad

Motor homes began arriving at the property around the beginning of this year.

Phil Dunn was one of the earliest arrivals, in January. He was living at the Lakeside RV Park in Provo, about 17 miles away on the east side of Utah Lake, when he saw an advertisement to stay at the farmers market, he said.

Where Lakeside charged around $370 a week to stay, he said Durrant charged $500 a month.

“She was very kind to me,” Dunn said of Durrant. " She gave me a place and she said, ‘Welcome home,’ you know, and all that good stuff.” Dunn thought he was set.

But he soon began to notice, or more specifically smell, some problems.

His RV was in an old horse pasture, with just a layer of wood chips laid down atop animal waste.

“It was disgusting. It was like the most foul place I’ve ever been in life,” he said.

More and more RVs began to arrive, along with more trouble. Complaints reference at least 20 parked on the property in March.

Dunn said one of his neighbors had her tires slashed. He saw drug use and people urinating “all over the place.” All this happened close to the barn, he said, where vendors sell produce and other items for the farmers market — which also bothered him.

“They’re selling food and stuff in a barn that housed animals. And it’s like these people [were] trying to hand me free samples, and I’m like, there’s no way I’m eating that. It was really gross.” Dunn has since moved away from the property and into a house, saying, “The bad situation definitely lit a fire under me and got me into a better situation.”

After he left, Dunn sent a complaint to the city of Lehi warning of a “humanitarian crisis” because of all the RVs and lack of infrastructure.

“There is no proper drainage and they serve food every weekend literally over pig [s---],” he wrote. “This place needs to be checked out big time.”

Market goes on

When asked about the county’s most recent notice to comply, Durrant didn’t directly answer.

“We, as a nation, need to take our rights back,” she replied. “These [county employees] work for us. We pay their salaries. They don’t contribute to society. They take from society in their salaries.”

She described news stories about the recent arrests on her property as “sensationalist,” and said in a brief May 12 phone call that she didn’t understand why her market was of interest to the media.

An April 18 post on the market’s Facebook page, written a day after the sheriff’s office issued a news release on Jarvis’ arrest, said the farmers market is “committed to safety and transperancy (sic)” and is working with law enforcement to “ensure that our farm is a safe, family friendly place to visit.”

”When we opened our goal was to provide a place where small business (sic) could come and grow. We wanted to have a place where familes (sic) could come and share in the experience of what farm life is like,” the post read. “Lehi is a growing city, as part of our goal we wanted families to feel a little bit of that old Lehi. This is a very difficult time.”

It added that they are following law enforcement guidance and “will tirelessly work until we have addressed every concern.”

On Saturday, May 13, the farmers market was open. Its Facebook page advertised cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, squashes, peas, herbs and melons for purchase, as well as jams, wreaths and a yard sale.

About a dozen cars were parked near its blue barn, and about as many RVs were scattered around the property. Despite neighbors’ complaints of attendees’ cars blocking the roadway to get inside the market, this afternoon, the area was relatively sleepy.

The market planned to sell more plants and produce the following weekend.

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