Box Elder County, Utah, may be creating more recreational vehicle spots to accommodate the hundreds of workers necessary to lay the Ruby Pipeline.

Lenard Aleshire, U.S. Pipeline project coordinator, asked the county commissioners Tuesday to consider creating at least 25 new RV spots at the county fairgrounds to house workers for the project, which is slated to begin early next year.

The 675-mile, 42-inch pipeline is supposed to deliver 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day by early 2011.

About 200 miles of pipeline will be built across Cache, Rich and Box Elder counties.

Aleshire said at least 200 RV spots will be needed to house the workers, but the commissioners said they were reluctant to do anything that would compete with already established businesses in the county.

After talking to local RV parks, Aleshire said they need 25 more spots, and possibly more.

Existing parks don't want to completely fill with workers, especially during their peak times. And once the first crew is finished, a crew that began in Logan will probably end up staying in Box Elder as work wraps up, he said.

"This sounds like a win-win for all concerned," said Rich VanDyke, commission chairman.

An agreement would promise a certain length of stay and payment from the pipeline workers as compensation for building the RV spots, then the park would be turned over to a private contractor and run as a business after the pipeline is finished.

Commissioner Brian Shaffer said he is concerned about putting a lot of RV spots at the fairgrounds because it would restrict future expansion.

A conditional-use permit would also need to be issued from Tremonton, VanDyke said.

VanDyke said he wasn't sure if 25 spots would be enough to keep the park in business in the future, but Shaffer felt creating more would limit future options.

The commissioners said they need more time to think about the issues before making a decision.

Copyright (c) 2009, Standard-Examiner, Ogden, Utah. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.