Promontory is going to the Summit County Council today with an appeal over a decision by the County Manager.
Tom Fisher ruled last year that to get an approval for an expansion of the Nicklaus West Clubhouse, Promontory had to show a plan and a time schedule to meet its obligation for employee housing.
Fisher told KPCW that the county staff has aimed to be fair in handling Promontory’s Development Agreement, first approved in 2001. He said they have a disagreement with the company here.
The council, meeting at the Coalville Courthouse, will be hearing the appeal at 4:30, which involves a Final Site Plan approval for the Nicklaus Clubhouse phase 3 expansion.
Fisher told KPCW that the county has indicated its concern over the employee units.
“I think if you go back to hearings or meetings that the council had with the Promontory Development last year, they were pretty centered on the affordable housing obligation and what they thought that it included. Certainly, my decision in regards to the Nicklaus Clubhouse, which is now under appeal and will be in front of the council, centers on of course we’ve approved that development. Its contingent on affordable housing obligation that they have to fulfill and a plan they have to file with the county.”
As we reported, Promontory CEO Francis Najafi complained last week to the East County Planning Commission that after nearly two decades of a good partnership, the county, in his view, was raising an unreasonable roadblock to the clubhouse approval.
He said that a timeline for meeting the employee obligation wasn’t really defined. We asked Fisher about that.
“I would agree there’s no specific time range except that it does say the word reasonable. The council believes that 17 years is reasonable.”
Najafi also maintained that the employee obligation is being met by the South Pointe development proposal.
“The hard part about that is that the obligation has existed since the beginning of the development of Promontory. The trigger is the development of jobs for that workforce housing to service. There’s been a couple of units produced but it doesn’t equal the number of jobs that have been produced. That’s really where the difference lies in our opinions.”
Najafi contended that Promontory has contributed to the county, not just in its great economic value, but its philanthropic contributions.
“I think all of those things are wonderful additions to the community and Promontory should be commended for that. However, their development agreement has certain obligations in it and some of those obligations are centered around some of the things that he talks about and some of them are not. It is our job as the staff to make recommendations to the planning commission and the council that come from that development agreement. That’s what we read and that’s what we interpret in order to process those applications as they come forward. I think the staff has been very fair in that we just have a disagreement going right now on this housing obligation.”
