What it does Naples
Farm ground, subdivisions and industrial yards inside one boundary
The working valley, read off the zoning map.
Twenty six percent of employed residents in oil and gas extraction, more than 15,000 vehicles a day on a Main Street that is really a state highway, and a city whose own plan says the majority of its nonresidential land is industrial. It also says what the city wants instead, in five written goals. Here is the ground, the ordinance and the homework.
Southern Utah is my home turf. Naples is not, so these pages are researched rather than lived: checked against city, county and venue sources, and dated so you can see how fresh they are. For the on-the-ground work here I lean on a Uintah County partner agent.
Start here
A residential city with a working landscape wrapped around it.
Drive US-40 through Naples and the frontage tells you what this city does. There are yards behind chain link with pipe racked in them, fabrication shops, truck parking, tanks, service company sheds, a scatter of retail, and then, a street back from the highway, quiet residential blocks and irrigated pasture. It reads as a working corridor because that is exactly what the zoning map says it is.
The city's own 2021 general plan gives the numbers without varnish. Oil and gas extraction accounts for 26 percent of employed residents, many of them working out of the Davis area industrial park. Retail trade is another 9 percent and transportation and warehousing another 9. The plan reports a median household income of 71,750 dollars against a county median of 67,012, a poverty rate of 6.95 percent, and a 10.8 percent decline in overall employees within the city.
It also says, in the plainest sentence in the whole document, that the majority of nonresidential land uses in Naples are currently industrial. That is not a criticism from an outside consultant; it is the city describing itself, in a plan whose central economic ambition is to change it.
Naples, the working ground
26%
of employed residents in oil and gas extraction
15,000+
vehicle trips a day on US-40 through town
19/100
the county's economic diversity score, 2018
12
zoning districts, from agricultural to industrial
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 all end up inside one boundary. Reading the district a parcel sits in is the single most useful thing a buyer can do here.
| 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 associated services, split into two classes by how much they affect neighbouring uses | The retail that exists, 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 intensity industrial, excluding hazardous or offensive uses | The yards. The ordinance itself bars industries offensive through odour, 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 neighbouring 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.
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: the plan says so directly and tells developers to expect access management requirements from UDOT on any commercial or higher density project fronting 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 high impact on the roads from the oil industry, cold winters and hot summers, and it observes that Naples has no street impact fee for transportation improvements, so growth does not currently fund the roads it uses. What the city has done instead is borrow: on 9 July 2026 the council adopted a resolution to issue up to 1,500,000 dollars in street improvement revenue bonds at not more than two percent, over not more than ten years, for improvements on 2500 South, with a public hearing set for 13 August 2026 at the city office.
The ambition for the frontage itself is written down and it is specific. Naples completed a Downtown Development Standards document setting the design and building form allowed in a future downtown at the southern end of the US-40 corridor. The plan says the city wants commercial to gradually fill areas along Main Street where industrial uses are currently prevalent, wants higher density mixed use in a core, wants a grocery store or shopping centre inside the city because residents asked for one, wants to establish Naples as the Gateway to Eastern Utah, and wants, in its own words, to work toward obtaining 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, listing sewer, water, electrical, gas, phone and cable. It will build a facility for a business willing to sign a minimum ten year lease. It will help with sidewalks, lighting or car parking. And it points businesses at Utah's enterprise zone incentives alongside its own.
Whether any of that 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 which direction the city is pushing, and that direction is 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 price in, in both directions: a quieter frontage eventually, and a construction decade in between.
The honest counterweight, and the plan includes it, is that residents surveyed for the general plan were generally pessimistic about the local economy. That was written in 2021. It is still the most useful sentence in the document for a newcomer, because it is the local view of the same facts, and it is a good deal more sober than any brochure.
The cycle, from the Naples end
The city grew hand in hand with the drilling.
This valley's oil and gas story belongs to the county seat and it is told properly there. What belongs here is the narrow version: what the cycle has done to this city's ground, its buildings and its budget.
Naples incorporated in 1982 and the general plan attributes the timing to an expanding economy and an increase in the energy sector. It then says the quiet part out loud: relative to most cities, Naples is in a unique position with an economy based heavily in the oil and gas industry, and the growth of the city historically has gone hand in hand with the boom and bust cycle of that major industry. Forty years of building has followed that line rather than a steady curve, which is why the subdivision streets on the west and southwest of the city read as clusters by vintage rather than as continuous growth.
The Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute measured the consequence in 2018 and scored Uintah County as tied for the second least diverse economy in Utah, at 19 out of 100. The city's response, throughout the plan, is diversification: more commercial, more retail, more infrastructure to attract businesses that are not in the oil field, and an explicit note that a broader base would give a more stable tax base to support and expand community services.
The cycle also pays for the recreation. Uintah Special Service District 1, which owns Naples City Park, the splash pad, the golf course, the pool and the recreation centre, states that 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 of those 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 of it.
A town that grew with the drilling has streets you can date by the cycle, and yards you can read from the highway.
What to do with all this
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 its neighbours | 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 vehicle 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 kerb |
| 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 constraint on its south and east, and FEMA remapping was pending | 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 simply the homework that a city with farm ground, subdivisions and industrial yards inside one boundary asks of a buyer, and every one of them 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 authorise impact fees, because of the type and timing of development that occurs here, while noting that if the housing market continues as it has the financial implications of new growth may warrant them. 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 funded from the general fund and from borrowing, which is what the 2500 South bond of July 2026 is.
Keep reading
More of Naples on The Local.
Things to do
The top 5, ranked
Five honest entries, a golf course nobody calls Naples, and why the list is short.
Read the guideThe park
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 postcode, 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, primarily, and the city's own 2021 general plan puts numbers on it: oil and gas extraction accounts for 26 percent of employed residents, with retail trade at 9 percent and transportation and warehousing at another 9. The plan reports a median household income of 71,750 dollars against a county median of 67,012, a poverty rate of 6.95 percent, and a 10.8 percent decline in overall employees within the city. The Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute scored Uintah County in 2018 as tied for the second least diverse economy in Utah at 19 out of 100.
Twelve, which is a wide range for 6.60 square miles. A-1 agricultural; RA-1 and RA-2 residential agricultural, written for housing with limited numbers of livestock; R-1, R-2 and R-3 residential at increasing density; R-S special residential for assisted living elderly housing; P-1 park; C commercial and C-1 downtown commercial; I-1 light and medium industrial; and an airport zone. Read the current land use ordinance at the city office on 1420 East 2850 South or on 435-789-9090 before relying on any summary.
In part, and the city says so itself. The 2021 general plan states that the majority of nonresidential land uses in Naples are currently industrial, and the frontage along US-40 shows it: service yards, fabrication, truck parking and tanks, with residential blocks a street back. The I-1 district covers light and medium intensity industrial and expressly excludes uses that are hazardous or offensive through odour, noise, vibration, dust or other emissions. The plan's central economic goal is to gradually replace industrial frontage on Main Street with commercial.
More than 15,000 vehicle trips a day, per a UDOT study cited in the Naples general plan. US-40 is both a state highway and the city's Main Street, and because it is a state route the city cannot control access on it; the plan tells developers to expect access management requirements from UDOT on any commercial or higher density project fronting it. The plan also notes that road repairs need close monitoring because of heavy impact from the oil industry alongside cold winters and hot summers.
Not yet, but it has adopted the standards for one. Naples completed a Downtown Development Standards document setting the design and building form allowed in a future downtown at the southern end of the US-40 corridor, and the general plan directs new development to comply with it. The plan also asks for higher density mixed use in that core, for commercial to gradually fill the areas along Main Street where industrial uses are currently prevalent, and for a grocery store or shopping centre inside the city because residents specifically asked for one.
More than most agencies this size. On land it holds for retail development, the agency says utilities are already connected, listing sewer, water, electrical, gas, phone and cable. It states it can build a facility for a business willing to agree a minimum ten year lease, and can help with additional structures such as sidewalks, lighting or car parks. It also points businesses toward Utah's enterprise zone incentives. Details and current availability come from the city offices on 435-789-9090.
No. The general plan states that the city does not currently authorise impact fees, because of the type and timing of development that occurs there, while noting that if the housing market continues as it has the financial implications of new growth may warrant them. It also notes separately that Naples has no street impact fee for transportation improvements. Instead the city has borrowed: on 9 July 2026 the council resolved to issue up to 1,500,000 dollars in street improvement revenue bonds over not more than ten years for work on 2500 South.
No parcel carries formal protection. State law requires a general plan to identify agricultural protection areas, which give land a vested agricultural, mining or industrial use for twenty years and shield it from rezoning, eminent domain, nuisance claims and state development. Uintah County was consulted for the 2021 plan and reported that no parcels within the Naples city boundaries had been formally designated. There is still a good deal of agricultural operation inside the city, and the plan says the city is not trying to accelerate its conversion.
Five things. The zoning district on the parcel and on everything adjoining it. What physically backs onto the property, checked in person at more than one time of day, because the plan's buffering and screening requirement is a standard rather than a guarantee about a particular fence. The distance and orientation to the highway, given more than 15,000 trips a day and heavy vehicle traffic. The water, sewer and irrigation arrangement for that exact address. And the current FEMA flood panel plus the soils, since the city names expansive soils and flood potential as its main constraint to the 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 kerb 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.
Referral disclosure. Outside Southern Utah, I connect home sellers and buyers with partner agents I trust in their area. If you choose to work with an agent I refer, that agent's brokerage pays my brokerage (Real Broker, LLC) a referral fee. The fee comes out of the agent's compensation; it is not an added cost to you. You are always free to choose any agent you wish, and using a referred agent is never required.