A proposal to build an RV park, hotel and gas station near the northwest entrance to Zion National Park has been rejected by county commissioners who said the rural area wasn’t equipped to handle that kind of commercial development.
A company called Juniper Investors was asking the commission to rezone land near the town of New Harmony, Washington County, off Interstate 15. The area is near an entrance to Zion National Park that leads to a 5-mile scenic drive through the Kolob Canyons area. The park’s main entrance is southwest of there, about a 40-mile drive by highway to the town of Springdale, which already has dozens of hotels, restaurants, and outfitter and souvenir shops.
Park officials opposed the project because they worried the development would affect views from the canyon and overwhelm the limited staff that work the entrance. Deseret News
