What it does Naples
The Uinta Basin oil economy, read from the Naples grid
What does Naples do for a living? Oil and gas, and US-40 shows it
Naples is the mostly residential city on the east edge of Vernal whose work runs on the Uinta Basin oil and gas patch. About a quarter of its employed residents work in extraction, the city's own plan says most of its nonresidential land is industrial, and its Main Street is a state highway carrying more than 15,000 vehicles a day. Here is what that means for where you work, what you hear, and what a home here is worth.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
The short answer
Naples makes its living in the Uinta Basin oil patch, and the work sits right on the main road. The city is mostly residential, but US-40 through town is lined with the service yards, fabrication shops and truck lots that support drilling, and the city's 2021 general plan counts oil and gas extraction as the job of about a quarter of its employed residents, many of them working out of an industrial park on the edge of town. Three miles west, Vernal holds the stores, the hospital, the county government jobs and most of the region's other employers, so the daily errand and the oil field shift are both short drives from a Naples address.
The honest question for a move is not whether the patch is busy this quarter. It is whether you can live with a town whose ground, budget and building have followed the drilling cycle for forty years, and whose own plan says it wants a broader, more commercial base. Keep that in mind as you read about the ground beneath the houses, the work along the highway, and the checks that matter before an offer.
The map underneath
Twelve districts, and three of them still say agriculture
Naples zones for a wider range of uses than most cities its size, which is what happens when farm ground, subdivisions and industrial yards share one boundary. The district a parcel sits in decides what can be built on it and next to it, which makes the zoning map the single most useful document a buyer here can read.
| District | What the ordinance is for | What that means on the ground |
|---|---|---|
| A-1, Agricultural | Keeping agricultural pursuits going inside the city until development becomes necessary or desirable | Working land inside the city limits, held rather than protected. The county confirmed no parcel here carries formal agricultural protection status |
| RA-1 and RA-2, Residential Agricultural | Housing with limited numbers of livestock | Large lots and tracts with dwellings, barns, corrals and agricultural buildings mixed together. This is much of what people picture when they picture Naples |
| R-1, R-2 and R-3, Residential | Single family through to denser family housing, with R-3 written around open space and pedestrian and bicycle connection | The subdivision streets, mostly built during boom years, mostly on the west and southwest of the city |
| R-S, Special Residential | A specific location for assisted living elderly housing at higher density | One designated area rather than a use scattered through the city |
| P-1, Park | Trails and recreation facilities | The park land, in a city whose park inventory runs well ahead of its population |
| C and C-1, Commercial and Downtown Commercial | Retail and the services that go with it, split into two classes by how much they affect neighboring uses | The retail that exists today, plus the downtown the city has drawn on the southern end of the US-40 frontage but not yet built |
| I-1, Industrial | Light and medium industrial, with hazardous or offensive uses excluded | The yards along the highway. The ordinance itself bars industries that are offensive through odor, noise, vibration, dust or other emissions, which tells you what the boundary is drawn against |
Every row above is a summary of the ordinance's stated intent rather than the ordinance itself, and zoning changes. Read the current land use ordinance at the city office on 1420 East 2850 South or on 435-789-9090, and confirm the district, the setbacks and the permitted uses for a specific parcel before you rely on any of it.
The city requires industrial and commercial development to buffer and screen against neighboring homes. It is written into the general plan as economic development policy: all commercial and industrial developments will provide adequate buffer and screening treatments to protect the desirability and amenities of adjoining residential properties. That is a genuinely useful thing to know if you are looking at a house whose back fence faces a yard, because it means there is a standard to point at. What it does not tell you is how well any particular screen was built or maintained, which is what an afternoon of driving the block will tell you.
The highway that is also Main Street
Fifteen thousand vehicles a day, and a downtown the city has only drawn
US-40 is a state highway and it is also Naples' Main Street, which is a difficult combination for any town. A UDOT study cited in the general plan puts more than 15,000 vehicle trips a day on it through the city. Because it is a state route, Naples cannot control access on it, and the plan tells developers to expect access management requirements from UDOT on any commercial or higher density project that fronts it. The city's own arterials, 2500 South and 500 South, are where it does have a say.
That traffic is also a maintenance bill. The plan notes that road repairs need close monitoring because of the weight the oil industry puts on them and because winters are cold and summers are hot, and it observes that Naples has no street impact fee, so growth does not fund the roads it uses. The city's answer has been to borrow: in July 2026 the council authorized up to 1.5 million dollars in street improvement revenue bonds over not more than ten years for work on 2500 South.
The ambition for the frontage is written down and it is specific. Naples completed a Downtown Development Standards document that sets the design and building form for a future downtown at the southern end of the US-40 corridor. The plan says the city wants commercial to gradually fill the Main Street frontage where industrial yards sit now, wants higher density mixed use in that core, wants a grocery store or shopping center inside the city because residents asked for one, wants to establish Naples as the first stop in Eastern Utah, and wants a Naples-specific zip code.
The instrument for all of that is the Naples City Redevelopment Agency, and its pitch is unusually concrete for a city this size. On land it holds for retail, the agency says the utilities are already connected: sewer, water, electrical, gas, phone and cable. It will build a facility for a business willing to sign a minimum ten year lease, and it will help with sidewalks, lighting or parking. It also points businesses at Utah's enterprise zone incentives.
Whether any of it lands is a question for the next decade rather than this year, and a buyer should read it as intent rather than as a guarantee. What it does tell you is the direction the city is pushing: away from a highway lined with yards and toward a highway lined with shops. If you are buying near the corridor, that is the change to weigh, because a shift of that kind brings construction work and noise long before it brings a quieter frontage.
The honest counterweight, and the plan includes it, is that residents surveyed for the general plan were generally pessimistic about the local economy. It was written in 2021, and it is still the most useful line in the document for a newcomer, because it is the local view of the same facts and a good deal more sober than any brochure.
The drilling cycle
The city grew hand in hand with the drilling
What the boom and bust cycle has done to Naples shows in its ground, its buildings and its budget. Vernal, three miles west, is the fuller Basin story; this is the version that reads from inside the city line.
Naples incorporated in 1982, and the general plan dates the decision to an expanding economy and a rising energy sector. It then says the quiet part out loud: the city has an economy based heavily in oil and gas, and its growth has historically gone hand in hand with that industry's boom and bust cycle. Forty years of building have followed that line rather than a steady curve, which is why the subdivision streets on the west and southwest read as clusters by decade rather than as continuous growth.
A 2018 measure by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute scored Uintah County as tied for the second least diverse economy in Utah, at 19 out of 100. The city's answer, repeated through the plan, is diversification: more commercial and retail land, more infrastructure for businesses that are not in the oil field, and a broader tax base to support community services. The Vernal guide's economy section carries the wider Basin version of the same story.
The cycle also pays for the recreation. Uintah Special Service District 1 owns Naples City Park, the splash pad, the golf course, the pool and the recreation center, and says it is funded through mineral lease funds, the local share of royalties on federal energy production. So the same industry that fills the yards on the highway also built the 34 acres on 1900 South, and both move with the same numbers. For a buyer, the practical translation is not alarm. It is that the timeline on a purchase here deserves as much thought as the price.
A town that grew with the drilling has streets you can date by the cycle, and yards you can read from the highway.
The commute
Vernal for the daily errands, and a three hour run to the Wasatch Front
Most Naples households drive everywhere, most days are short, and the one long road matters. Here is the honest geography of the daily errand, the oil field commute and the big trip west.
| Where you are heading | The drive from Naples | What is really there |
|---|---|---|
| Vernal | About 3 miles west on US-40, a few minutes | Vernal: most of the jobs, the hospital, the supermarkets and the county offices |
| The oil patch | Along US-40 and US-191 out of Vernal, wherever the work is that season | Extraction and the services around it, the industry most Naples households work in |
| Salt Lake City | About 170 to 175 miles west on US-40, roughly three hours | The full service airport, big city retail and most specialist care |
Nobody commutes on transit here. The 2021 plan counts a mean commute of about 24 minutes, with 82.8 percent driving alone, 11.5 percent carpooling and two cars in the average household, and the daily pattern is a short run into Vernal or out onto the patch roads. The long trip is west: Salt Lake City sits roughly 170 to 175 miles away over the mountains, about three hours in ordinary conditions and longer when winter weather closes the crossing.
Distances and times are ordinary conditions on paved roads, and the western run crosses the mountains, so check road conditions before a big trip in winter.
The checks before an offer
Five things to check before you write an offer here
| Check | Why it matters in Naples specifically | Where the answer is |
|---|---|---|
| The zoning district on the parcel and on everything adjoining it | Twelve districts run from agriculture to industry inside 6.60 square miles, and A-1 land is held for future development rather than protected | Naples City land use ordinance and the current zoning map, on 435-789-9090 |
| What backs onto the property | The plan requires buffering and screening between industrial or commercial and residential, but a standard on paper is not a fence on the ground | An afternoon driving the block, at more than one time of day |
| Distance and orientation to the US-40 frontage | More than 15,000 vehicle trips a day, heavy truck traffic tied to the oil field, and a state highway the city cannot control access on | UDOT for the route, and your own ears at the curb |
| Water, sewer and irrigation for that exact address | The district serves most of the city, some edge parcels are on well and septic, and ditch shares do not always convey | Ashley Valley Water and Sewer on 435-789-9400 and the title work |
| The flood panel and the soils | The city names expansive soils and flood potential as the main constraint on its south and east | Uintah County and the current FEMA panel for the parcel |
None of these is exotic, and none of them is a reason to avoid Naples. They are the homework that a city with farm ground, subdivisions and industrial yards in one boundary asks of a buyer, and every one has an answer available before an offer rather than after a closing.
There is no street impact fee in Naples, and that cuts both ways. The general plan states that the city does not currently authorize impact fees because of the type and timing of development here, while noting that continued growth could change that. For a buyer of a new build that means one less line on the cost of a lot today. For anybody buying to hold, it means the roads that development uses are paid for from the general fund and from borrowing, which is what the 2500 South bond of July 2026 is.
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
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Naples Park and the splash pad
Thirty four acres, a music park, and a splash pad that did not open in 2026.
Read the guideThe 24th of July
Summerfest
One free day at the park on the 24th of July, in the year aerial fireworks went.
Read the guideThe water
Ashley Creek
Two miles of creek across the east side, the springs it feeds, the frogs it named.
Read the guideMoving here
Naples or Vernal
One zip code, one school district, two tax rates and two water systems.
Read the guideThe companion
Naples, the whole picture
The park, the party, the creek, the working ground and the address question, together.
Read the pageQuick answers
The ground, answered
Oil and gas, and the city's 2021 general plan is the most direct way to see it. The plan counts oil and gas extraction as the job of 26 percent of employed residents, with retail trade at 9 percent and transportation and warehousing at another 9, and it reports a median household income of 71,750 dollars against a county median of 67,012. It also records a 10.8 percent decline in the number of people employed inside the city, measured in 2021. It is an economy built on one industry, and the plan says plainly that the city wants to broaden it.
Twelve, a wide range for a city of 6.60 square miles. They run from A-1 agricultural, through the RA-1 and RA-2 residential agricultural districts written for housing with limited livestock, the R-1, R-2 and R-3 residential districts, R-S special residential for assisted living, P-1 park, C and C-1 commercial, to I-1 industrial, plus an airport zone. Confirm the district and the permitted uses for a specific parcel at the city office on 1420 East 2850 South or on 435-789-9090 before you rely on any summary.
In part, and the city says so itself. The 2021 general plan states that most of the nonresidential land in Naples is industrial, and the US-40 frontage shows it in service yards, fabrication shops, truck parking and tanks with residential blocks a street back. The I-1 district covers light and medium industry and excludes uses that are hazardous or offensive through odor, noise, vibration, dust or other emissions. The plan's central economic goal is to gradually replace that industrial frontage on Main Street with commercial.
More than 15,000 vehicle trips a day, per a UDOT study cited in the general plan. US-40 is both a state highway and Naples's Main Street, and because it is a state route the city cannot control access on it, so commercial projects that front it can expect access management requirements from UDOT. The plan adds that the roads need close monitoring because the oil industry, cold winters and hot summers wear them hard.
Not yet, but the standards for one are written. Naples completed a Downtown Development Standards document that sets the design and building form for a future downtown at the southern end of the US-40 corridor, and the plan pushes higher density mixed use there. It also asks for commercial to gradually fill the Main Street frontage where industrial uses sit now, and for a grocery store or shopping center inside the city because residents asked for one.
Short to the daily errands, long to the Wasatch Front. The 2021 plan counts a mean commute of about 24 minutes with most residents driving alone, and Vernal is a few minutes west for the stores, the hospital and the county government jobs. Salt Lake City is roughly 170 to 175 miles away over the mountains on US-40, about three hours in ordinary conditions and longer when winter weather closes the crossing.
On the land it holds for retail, the agency says the utilities are already connected: sewer, water, electrical, gas, phone and cable. It will build a facility for a business willing to sign a minimum ten year lease, and it can help with sidewalks, lighting and parking. It also points businesses at Utah's enterprise zone incentives. For current availability, ring the city offices on 435-789-9090.
No. The 2021 general plan states that the city does not currently authorize impact fees because of the type and timing of development here, while noting that continued growth could change that. Naples also has no street impact fee, so growth does not fund the roads it uses; instead the city borrowed, authorizing up to 1.5 million dollars in street improvement revenue bonds in July 2026 for work on 2500 South.
Five things. The zoning district on the parcel and on everything adjoining it. What actually backs onto the property, checked in person at more than one time of day, because the city's buffering and screening requirement is a standard rather than a guarantee about any particular fence. The distance and orientation to the highway, given more than 15,000 trips a day and heavy truck traffic. The water, sewer and irrigation arrangement for that exact address. And the current FEMA flood panel plus the soils, because the city names expansive soils and flood potential as the main constraints on its south and east.
Looking at a parcel here? Drive the block before you read the listing
In a city where farm ground, subdivisions and industrial yards sit inside one boundary, the zoning map and an afternoon at the curb answer more than any set of photographs. Tell me the address you are weighing and I will connect you with a Uintah County partner agent who can pull the zoning, the utilities and the flood panel, and stay on the file for the homework and the financing side.
Or call Scott: (435) 357-4345or send Scott a message
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