NORTH SALT LAKE — Though Eaglewood Village has crossed a major hurdle in its quest to become more than just a gravel pit, developers still have to deal with Mother Nature.

At their June 5 meeting, the Centerville City Council ap-proved a development agreement with Compass Development, the group behind Eaglewood Village. As part of that agreement, however, Compass has to monitor and tame the shifting, settling gravel pit land into something stable enough to build on.

“It’s important. Developers can’t really get outside funding for their projects until they have some sort of assurance,” said North Salt Lake City Manager Collin Wood. “And they can’t get that assurance without a development agreement.”

Compass focused on solving many of the concerns that have been expressed about the development. The area’s geo-technical situation was presented by James Nordquist, an engineering consultant from AGEC, the same group working on the City Creek Project in Salt Lake.

He explained that some areas of the property could settle anywhere from two to 14 inches in the next 50 years, which makes it unsuitable for construction.The hillside, which is shifting as well as settling, is only marginally stable.

“Our process is to take the behavior we’ve learned from our research and predict the future,” said Nordquist in the presentation.

As a result, Compass will spend the next few years carefully draining and packing the ground in order to stop the settling, a process that will be carefully regulated by the AGEC. Compass Development will also pay for a consultant for the city, should they question any of Nordquist’s judgments.

If necessary, Compass will pay for deep foundations for the buildings, going down, sometimes, as far as 70 to 80 feet in order to get to the stable ground beneath.

The new development has also planned for three detention basins to deal with runoff, which will cost more than two million without including the land. The water may later be used as a secondary water source for the development.

As for traffic, Compass reminded council members of its agreement to both move the frontage road access farther south and keep the current one open for as long as possible. They have also agreed with UDOT to move the first intersection, including the light, further south.

Of more interest to residents will be the addition of an extra right-hand lane along Highway 89, specifically de-signed for cars intending to get off at Orchard Drive.

“Though traffic will eventually get bad again, an extra lane would initially improve the congestion along Highway 89,” said City Engineer Paul Ottoson. “Traffic on the roundabout will increase, but that’s un-avoidable.”

Eaglewood Village’s architecture is still being handled by VCBO, the architects who designed the South Davis Recreation Center and the award-winning Salt Lake City Library. Sean Onyon, vice-president of VCBO, offered visuals of both the Highway 89 and roundabout entrances to the property.

The trails that will be included in the development were also reviewed, along with natural landscaping that will be watered mostly by drip irrigation.

Though the details of the development agreement have been hammered out, Compass Development and city officials still have to finish the approval process on the development’s preliminary plan.

“After you finish with the preliminary process, you’ve basically done 90 percent of the work,” said Collin Wood. “But right now we’re just barely getting started.”