The frenetic pace of development in Utah County over the past few years has left Payson growing like a well-tended houseplant.

But if Payson wants to continue its growth spurt, it's going to have to move that plant into a bigger pot.

After adding nearly 4,000 new residents since 2000, Payson in nearly out of room to grow. Aside from a 400-home development going up on the city's south side, Payson does not have any land with access to public utilities that could support more than four or five homes, let alone the massive subdivisions that are sprouting across the county.

City manager Andy Hall said Payson is looking at a couple of large land annexations to alleviate the land shortage. South of the 800 South interchange, the city is processing an annexation request from Emerald Turf Farms for about 300 acres. But on Payson's east side, the city is looking to annex about 1,200 acres.

While a request from the developer is prompting the 800 South annexation, it was the city that took the initiative on the east side. The City Council directed city staff to create the East Side Comprehensive Plan to look at things like infrastructure needs, roadway plans and housing density projections.

Hall said the east side annexation area could eventually have as many as 1,500 homes, stretching all the way to Salem.

"Kind of a self-sustained community out there," he said.

The city is inviting residents and landowners in the 1,200-acre area to public meetings to discuss the plan. Hall said the city is looking to them for a lot of input on the area's future.

The impetus for the East Side Comprehensive Plan is a sewer line that Payson is building that will extend to Elk Ridge and Woodland Hills. The project began in November after the two towns struck a deal with Payson to hook onto its sewer system.

"Now that we're putting a sewer line in there, we anticipate there's going to be a fairly high demand for development, and so we thought it was important that we have some preliminary planning completed before we start to annex," Hall said.

For years, Payson has tried to avoid such large annexations to support a policy of managed growth.

Mayor Burtis Bills said the preferable size for an annexation was about 100 acres so the city could ensure that growth didn't outstrip the city's infrastructure capacities. Recently, the city has seen an additional 200 to 500 homes go up in Payson each year.

"What we're after is good, quality growth," Bills said.

In nearby Salem and Mapleton, restrictions and moratoriums on new subdivisions were only recently ended. Salem had a restriction in place for more than a year while it worked to upgrade its power grid. In Mapleton, concern over sewer capacity was the primary motivation behind a six-month moratorium on new subdivisions.

Hall said a 1,200-acre annexation would not be a reversal of Payson's managed growth policy. Even though the area will likely be annexed in several large chunks -- probably 400 to 500 acres at a time -- the city expects it to develop slowly.

About 500 acres of that land is an orchard, and Hall said the owners plan to continue farming there for the foreseeable future.

When Hall said he expects 1,200 to 1,500 homes to go up in the area, he is talking about the next 20-plus years. Hall said that will help preserve Payson's rural character and small-town atmosphere.

"We don't want to grow so fast that we're just a gigantic construction project," he said. "We want (residents) to enjoy life in Payson without growing so fast that they have to stand in line to check out a book at the library, that their kids can't get into our Little League programs."

Jeremy Duda can be reached at 344-2561 or jduda@heraldextra.com.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D2.