Cottonwood Heights, Utah— Beau Babka announced yesterday that he was involved in at least one meeting at while an officer at Cottonwood Heights Police Department, where he was told that they would be targeting the Canyon Inn’s business and customers for excessive police force. Babka went on to say that this order was given because there was a need for a future development project to get underway.

The development project is called the Canyon Centre Development. The momentum of the project has gone in fits and starts since it was first announced to break ground in 2008.  Plans were changed after the housing bubble and again they announced plans to break ground in 2012. More delays occurred however, according to the developer due to permits and citizen concerns. According to the developer there are more citizen concerns and a pending lawsuit. But according to residents, the project isn’t moving forward because the plans are not viable without a “grand entrance” an entrance that would be allowed if the businesses that rest facing Fort Union Boulevard were not in the way.

According to Bryan O’Meara, co-owner of the Porcupine Pub, he was in talks with the developer where they indicated they could incorporate his restaurant into the future development. The developer and the real estate agent told him that removal of the businesses (such as the Canyon Inn and the 7-11) would not be a problem. Their means of doing this would come from the, “developers relationship with the city.” O’Meara said that once he told his partners of the nefarious means of making the project viable, they ended negotiations with the developers Chris McCandless and Wayne Niederhauser, who work under financier Kevin Gates. McCandless serves on the Sandy City Council, Niederhauser resides as the president of the Utah State Senate.