Apartment City

Buy Photo St. George City officials discuss zoning changes in anticipation for a proposed office park at the current Ridgetop Complex Wednesday , Dec. 16, 2015. (Photo: Chris Caldwell / The Spectrum & Daily News) Buy Photo Suspended high above St. George’s urban center,  hiding in plain sight atop a mesa, is some of highest-value real estate in one of the county’s fastest-growing cities. For the better part of seven years, it mostly lay empty. The “ Ridgetop Complex ,” as it has formally been known since 2011 when the city relocated its airport, stretches for more than a mile north-to-south, carrying 155 acres of developable flat land with unencumbered viewscapes along the land that once carried the runway. Once pegged for pricey cliffside homes , schools, shops and all the trappings of a premium mixed-use neighborhood, it has instead been limited in recent years to the occasional hobby race , concert or other event that requires a large open space . It’s sometimes used by law...

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The Latest on the Spain attacks (all times local): 11:30 p.m. Police in the southern French city of Nimes have arrested a man unlawfully carrying a pistol into a train station, but say he is not linked to the attacks in Barcelona. After an evacuation and police operation at the train station Saturday night , the historic city quickly returned to normal, with police returning to their posts. A national police spokesman said the operation began when a passenger alerted police to a man with a weapon. Police quickly found and arrested him, said the spokesman, who was not authorized to be publicly named. The spokesman said the man has no apparent connection to Thursday's attacks around Barcelona, about 380 kilometers southwest of Nimes. French authorities increased checks of its border with Spain after the attacks, and one suspect is believed at large. ___ 10:50 p.m. Catalan regional police say they are mounting major road blocks throughout the northea...

Here on a hillside farm, a hundred feet from the Lincoln Tunnel, a rooster crowed. It was 8:16 a.m., the peak of the Monday morning crush into New York City. Bus brakes squealed . A trucker's horn boomed out as cars inched down the J-shaped helix and into the tunnel's mouth. The rooster paused; then it crowed again. Konstantinos Natsis, owner of rooster and farm, was busy curling a tomato plant's young green vine around a trellis of white plastic twine . When he turned to look at the traffic jam, his gray eyebrows lifted , as if surprised to see the tunnel — this famous, dirty, diesel-soaked symbol of the city — so close to his sunflowers and pumpkins. "I don't even notice it!" said Natsis, 70, who has farmed this spot in Weehawken for 17 years. "I come here and I plant my vegetables. I eat them, and I give them to my friends. This is all I do," he told The Record (https://njersy.co/2uLdxyU). To be fair, that's not exactly all he does. Natsis a...

Bruce Chatterton moved to Meridian from Boise more than four years ago. The “room to grow” that is Meridian’s essence made him want to live and work there. Now the city’s community development director , Chatterton says it’s also been “fun seeing a small, somewhat quiet downtown become a place people want to hang out.” Meridian still has plenty of room to spread out, and that’s good, because its population is booming. It was the 13th-fastest-growing city in the U.S. last year. And it’s not just about Meridian. The growth is changing the whole Treasure Valley , affecting traffic, housing, health care, education and retail. The 2016 U.S. Census estimates put Meridian ’s population at nearly 96,000. The Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho (Compass) estimates today ’s population at just more than 98,000. That’s a tenfold jump since 1990.   The growth seems unlikely to look to slow anytime soon, says Compass planner and demographics specialist Carl Miller , who lives in Meri...

BARCELONA, Spain — Authorities in Spain searched Saturday for a member of an Islamic extremist cell that staged vehicle attacks in Barcelona and a seaside resort, focusing on links with his Moroccan comrades, a missing imam believed to have radicalized them and a house that blew up days ago. Catalan police said the manhunt was centered on Younes Abouyaaquoub, a 22-year-old Moroccan suspected of driving the van that plowed into a Barcelona promenade packed with pedestrians Thursday, killing 13 people and injuring 120. Another attack early Friday killed one person and wounded five in the resort of Cambrils.But the investigation was also focusing on a Moroccan imam who is thought to have radicalized the cell and was believed to have died on the eve of the Barcelona attack , police said.Even with Abouyaaquoub still at large, Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido declared the cell “broken” after five members were killed by police early Friday in a shootout, four were in cus...