TODAY, WE COVER…
- Grand finale of the year-long community visioning process
- Big Dakota Pacific-related news
- Property tax increase for Assessing and Collecting Fund
- 2024 budgets
OUR SUMMIT
Last week, the Our Summit project team was in front of council to present a highly polished version of the Vision and Strategic Plan for Summit County. Prior to the presentation, community members, staff, and elected and appointed officials had the opportunity to make comments and suggestions and ask questions on the draft document.
From here, the final version of the Vision and Strategic Plan will be available on the Summit County website by January 12, 2024.
Outside the plan itself, some suggested next steps from the project team included:
- Committing to an annual monitoring and evaluation of the Vision and Strategic Plan during a County Council meeting, retreat, or special session.
- Updating the County General Plans to align with the objectives, priorities, and strategies outlined in the Vision and Strategic Plan.
- Updating and/or creating Future Land Use Maps that achieve the goals in each General Plan and utilize area specific values and priorities that have been collected during this process.
- Encouraging future county department work plans to utilize and/or align with the objectives, priorities, and strategies outlined in the Vision and Strategic Plan.
- Planning for ongoing engagement with the community to demonstrate progress toward community-identified goals.
I’m sure this won’t be the last time we discuss the results of the Our Summit Community Visioning Process and how they will impact the work the County organization does moving forward.
But, in general, we wanted to extend a heartfelt thank you to the community for their consistent and valuable feedback this past year. This Vision and Strategic Plan was built by YOU and we can’t wait to watch the ways it will make Summit County better moving forward.
DAKOTA PACIFIC
At this week’s County Council meeting, Council Chair, Roger Armstrong, announced that the Utah State Legislature had reached out to Summit County and Dakota Pacific separately to ask if each party was willing to pause the ongoing litigation and resume discussions. The County Council agreed to do so.
The agreement pauses proceedings where they are and allows for a 6-month period to continue discussions outside of the courtroom.
The Council will have a limited number of closed meetings to identify the specific issues outstanding and to set a timeline to discuss those issues publicly. We’ll be sure to keep our listeners updated on this process as it continues to move forward.
TAX INCREASE
The public hearings related to the county’s proposed tax increase for 2024 have come to an end. Following the series of public hearings, at this week’s County Council meeting, the Council decided to proceed with increasing the rate for the Assessing and Collecting fund as part of the Truth in Taxation process. This will allow the County to collect $1.4 million, money that would mostly impact the Assessor’s Office, Recorder’s Office, Auditor’s Office, and Treasurer’s Office. The increase will impact the average resident (with a home value of approximately $1.3 million) by about $23 per year.
Through various budget cuts, the county was able to balance the budget enough to not proceed with tax increases for the General Fund or the Municipal Services Fund.
COUNTY BUDGET
Finally, and also following the close of Truth in Taxation public hearings, the Council voted to approve the 2024 county budget. Our listeners can review the budget on the homepage of the Summit County website www.summitcounty.org.
The Council also approved the following 2024 budgets:
- Park City Fire District
- North Summit Fire Service District
- Snyderville Basin Special Recreation District
- Mountain Regional Water Special Service District
- North Summit Special Recreation District
OUTRO
Alright that’s it for today and for 2023! We’ll be back with more on Summit in Six in the new year! We hope our listeners have a happy and healthy holiday season.
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