Lehi and Utah County are preparing to take ownership of "condominiums" inside the Cabela's store -- homes not for people but for live trophy fish and taxidermic African and North American wildlife.

Planning commissioners in Lehi will hold a public hearing, titled "Cabela's Condominium" in legal notices, on Thursday over whether to zone three condos "within the Cabela's store."

When first contacted by the Daily Herald, officials at Cabela's corporate offices said the legal notice, paid for by the city, must be a mistake.

"I'm pretty sure that this is not correct as written," wrote James Powell of Cabela's, referring to a copy of the legal notice, in an e-mail. "My guess is that this may be the developer, not us, and they are trying to build condo units around our store, not in it."

Upon investigation, however, it turned out that zoning condos inside the store is a way for Utah County and Lehi to each take ownership of the museum space within the store. No condos will be built, despite the wording of the legal notice.

Zoning the space as "condos" is simply "a commercial designation," Powell said. "It's not like there are going to be any condos in the store. We are rezoning the museum and public space so we can deed that to the city."

Lehi and the county actually paid for the museum space, Lehi contributing $1.25 million and the county contributing about $2.1 million, said Ron Foggin, assistant city administrator for Lehi.

If so-called condo zoning is approved, the city will own 4 percent of the 175,000-square-foot superstore in Lehi, specifically the 45,000-gallon aquarium stocked with 25 species of game and trophy fish, and a section of African dioramas depicting hundreds of life-size wildlife, Foggin said.

The county will own another 6 percent of the store, including a 30-foot-high faux mountain featuring running waterfalls that feed a trout pond, and more than 430 animal mounts.

The city and the county paid for the museum space to encourage the retailer to locate in Utah County, said County Commissioner Larry Ellertson.

"One way the county can participate is by having public participation and that museum was the way for us to do that," he said.

Spread across 41 acres along Interstate 15 at the Alpine-Highland exit near Thanksgiving Point, in its first year of operation the Lehi store drew almost 5 million visitors, thanks in large part to the draw of the wildlife museum, generating an average of $40 million in annual sales, Cabela's representatives have said.

The store created up to 400 jobs and was projected to bring in $2.8 million in sales tax revenue to Utah during the first year in operation, which ended in September.

Cabela's officials have said the wildlife museum is a major part of an effort to draw millions of visitors annually to the store.

A public hearing on the issue of zoning "condominiums" within the store will be held by the Lehi City Planning Commission at 7 p.m. on Thursday in the Lehi City Council chambers, 153 N. 100 East.

Caleb Warnock can be reached at 443-3263 or cwarnock@heraldextra.com.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D1.