In the names of NewVistas Foundation, Tracy Hall LLC, DRH Holdings LLC, and Karen V Hall LLC, 19 homes have been purchased on the south side of the Provo City Pleasant View Neighborhood. NewVistas tore down three of the homes.  Other homes in the neighborhood have been torn down by owners but then followed with the establishment of a new home.  

By purchasing all the homes that become available and actively seeking purchase of every home in this area, NewVistas alters the transition that occurs in neighborhoods.  Individuals and families that would purchase property and claim Pleasant View as their permanent home cannot compete in the market NewVistas has created.  The neighborhood no longer has a diversity of owners – a diversity that instills measured growth.  NewVistas already has used this same concentrated residential home/property purchase strategy in other Provo City residential neighborhoods.   The mass purchase of homes decimated that neighborhood of individuals and families invested in the long term growth of community and each other. 

What NewVistas/Novatek did to the Provo City neighborhood on Mountain Vista Lane.

Novatek (owned by David Hall until October 2015), purchased 18 of the 24 homes in the neighborhood that is on Mountain Vista Lane in Provo.   The open market families and individuals who would have naturally filled in as new owners and new neighbors never could compete with the monopoly and resources wielded by the corporation.  Of course home owners went to David Hall, to sell; he created his own market and created his own desired outcome.  Owner occupied homes in the Mountain Vista Lane neighborhood were steadily converted by David Hall into temporary housing.  Every residential neighborhood in Provo has a stock of temporary housing options, but not by a single owner as a purposed strategy to change an existing neighborhood.  After amassing the 18 properties, David Hall sought a general plan/zone change for the Mountain Vista Lane neighborhood from residential to commercial use.  On 8 October, 2014, the Provo City Planning Commission voted 5:0 to recommend to the Provo City Municipal Council a denial of that request.  The Report of Action approved by the Provo City Planning Commission includes the following information:

“Novatek has violated city zoning ordinances by housing multiple families in the houses they have already purchased on Mountain Vista Lane. The city has taken Novatek to court but Novatek has still not complied with existing ordinances.” (“Key issue” in written comment from a neighbor)

“Novatek has been unresponsive to neighborhood concerns and the CEO of the company has voiced his intent to buy all the houses on Mountain Vista Lane in order to house employees. The majority of the neighbors do not wish to sell their homes and would like to be able to enjoy their homes and their neighborhood in peace.”    (“Key issue” in written comment from a neighbor)

“It appears that Novatek has not respected boundaries up until now, and allowing the company to encroach into the neighborhood, placing industrial uses even closer to residential homes, is not justified.”  (A key point discussed by the Planning Commission)

That amendment request has now expired and is dead.  So also is the neighborhood that was Mountain Vista Lane – homes are stuck in a nonresidential holding patter and are removed from the transition and circulation that are an essential component of neighborhood vitality.  All of the residential properties purchased by Novatek are now NewVistas and DRH Holdings LLC properties.  We will not watch the Pleasant View Neighborhood suffer the same fate.

Up till now, individual and neighborhood efforts to redirect the NewVistas/David Hall vision of the future (newvistafoundation.org) away from the legacy, vibrant, and always growing Pleasant View Neighborhood has been through private and personal communications.  These quiet efforts have not been successful as evidenced by persistent aggressive purchase of homes.

What has been the response of David Hall to neighborhood concerns?

“I  have the funding for the $100m [million] Tracy Hall science center to be located on Lambert Lane.   Tracy LLC will be accelerating the buy out of homes in the neighborhood in preparation for the center.”   

        “I will take legal action against you for harassment.”

        “My objective is to find better ways to create community systems that are pleasing and affordable. Single family homes are not sustainable nor adorable for the next generation. We have to find better solutions for our children and grand children. The community center and villages that I intend to build at the BYU south end of pleasant view will add great beauty to the area and will house 800 good people where 40 good people are now.”

        “ The area is in distress because of its location and the growth of BYU.  It is time for all to move out and on with their lives and I am providing an easy way for all to exit at a premium.”

David Hall, the Pleasant View Neighborhood, all of it, is alive and thriving.  Like all growth, homes, families, and individuals will change.  One by one, owners will change and the new owners each will infuse their lives into the continuing life of the neighborhood and they will temper and inform the growth.  Your persistent and unwanted one-sided conglomeration of homes is characteristic of a cancer.  We all are Pleasant View and directly disagree with your vision for the neighborhood.

We will “Preserve Pleasant View.”