In today’s episode we:
- Cover a few topics that were addressed at the County Council meeting on Wednesday including a quick Dakota Pacific Development Agreement update and some Moderate Income Housing news.
- Share information about several community engagement opportunities that are happening within the County in the coming weeks that you won’t want to miss.
Dakota Pacific Update
Community Development Director, Pat Putt, was in front of the Council this week to give a status update on the Dakota Pacific Development Agreement proposal.
For some context, since it’s been a while since we’ve talked about it, last year Dakota Pacific presented an original development proposal for the Summit Research Park/Park City Tech Center located in Kimball Junction to the community.
They received significant feedback at a December public hearing that led them back to the drawing board to
- Come up with a Plan B proposal, and
- Update their traffic impact study. It was agreed that the impact study must be peer reviewed before moving forward.
To be clear, the Community Development Department and the Council have not received a formal amended, or plan B, proposal from Dakota Pacific at this time, although staff are expecting it to be submitted to them any day now.
So what was Pat in front of the Council to talk about if there is no updated proposal yet?
Good question! He was really there to discuss specifically that peer review process we mentioned a little earlier when discussing the traffic impact study. He wanted to make certain the scope of the work is in alignment with the Council’s needs and expectations before moving forward with the bidding process to hire an independent, third-party firm.
From here, outreach to potential peer review candidates will start. Stay tuned for more updates on this process, as well as on the amended development agreement in the coming weeks.
Moderate Income Housing
Shifting gears to some affordable housing news…
Earlier this year, House Bill 462 was passed and imposed new requirements on cities and counties to encourage the development of moderate-income housing.
In response, both the Snyderville Basin and Eastern Summit County Planning Commissions have been working to develop new Moderate Income Housing Plans.
This week, the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission forwarded a proposed plan to the Summit County Council to review and potentially approve the plan. The Council had a lengthy discussion about the Housing and Transit Reinvestment Zone or HTRZ component, as well as expressed concerns about workforce housing and issues related to funding and maintaining a certain level of service within the county, but no action was taken on the Basin’s plan.
The Eastern Summit County Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on their recommendation to the Council next week on Monday, September 19. Eastern Summit County residents are encouraged to attend the hearing (which will take place at the Ledges Event Center starting at 4 PM) to give their input on moderate income housing in their communities. More information can be found in the Agenda Center on the summitcounty.org homepage.
Community Engagement Opportunities
We’ll start to wrap things up here with some upcoming engagement opportunities for our listeners!
First up, North Summit Fire District hosted two open houses to engage with their community about the Fire District’s financial situation and work together to determine a path forward to make sure the public and North Summit firefighters are safe and protected.
Any North Summit Fire District residents or firefighters who may have missed the open houses, don’t worry! You can view the informational material presented and give feedback online at bit.ly/solutionsforsafety.
Up next, we encourage our listeners to come on out to the next event in the “Living With Wildfire” series on September 20 which is co-hosted by Swaner Preserve and EcoCenter and Summit County!
Climate change is affecting every part of the country. In the western U.S. we’re seeing larger, hotter, and more frequent wildfires. These fires not only affect wildlife and air quality, but watersheds, water quality, and can forever change a landscape. How do ecosystems respond, and how can we help make these systems and our natural resources more resilient?
You’ll hear from panelists Brad Washa, Jess Kirby, and Dr. Paul Rogers as they discuss their work in this field and what impacts we’re seeing both locally and state-wide. There will also be a live Q&A at the end of the discussion.
The event will run from 6:30 – 8:00 PM at Swaner Preserve & EcoCenter located at 1258 Center Drive in Park City. Other upcoming events in the series can be found at summitcounty.org/engage.
Finally, throughout the rest of September and early October, Summit County, Mountain Mediation Center, and Park City Municipal invite you to participate in one of their open houses on The Utah Olympic Bid.
Share your hopes, and concerns about how a Winter Olympics would affect our communities. You can view specific dates and locations, as well as RSVP at summitcounty.org/engage.
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