Summit County Manager Tom Fisher says they’re getting close to securing the purchase of the Florence Gilmor property, and to coming to an agreement with the EPA.
The county took a step closer to that with a vote Tuesday night from the Snyderville Planning Commission.
Fisher told KPCW that they’ve been busy behind closed doors in negotiations.
“We’re still negotiating back and forth between the EPA. Some of the federal trustees that are involved with the property, US fisheries and wildlife service, those types of folks, state DEQ. I think we're getting close were kind of bantering back and forth on final documents and getting close to setting a closing date on that.”
The property held by the Florence Gilmor Estate is some 460 acres, east of the Highway 40 frontage road, and it sits over part of the Silver Creek corridor of contaminated mine tailings.
On Tuesday night, the Snyderville Commission voted to recommend a Subdivision Plat on the land. That separates out Lot One, a little over 125 acres, which the county will consider for development since soil studies have shown it’s free of contaminants.
“It essentially divides the property between that which has levels of contamination that are outside of certain thresholds established by the EPA and those that don't. It doesn't change the zoning on the property at all it's still rural residential. It just divides the land between those two designations.”
We asked if the Gilmor land, outside of Lot One, is under the purview of the EPA.
“in much the same way it is today. So, the EPA would still have some rights of entry onto the developable parcel just because of being able to have to get to the rest of the property out there. Other than that, it would no longer be part of the operable units that are out there.”
Lot One is zoned Rural Residential, allowing one unit per 20 acres. Fisher said they’re also looking at it for government or civic uses.
“That would have to go through a normal process to re subdivide a parcel if there were uses that wanted to be had on that.”
