Wasatch County’s Assistant Manager, Dustin Graybau works a lot with MIDA, the planning authority over the Mayflower Mountain Resort area.
He is telling KPCW that 2020 will likely be the first year that residents see development going vertical near the Jordanelle Reservoir.
Graybau said there’s a lot of activity underway at the Mayflower Mountain site.
“All that dirt that was moving. There’s also a fair amount that got moved on the east side. And all of that is in preparation for things starting to go vertical. I think is when we’re really gonna see the whole area start in earnest. There has been a hotel on the Mayflower exit, been a hotel that has an application submitted. Probably won’t see a lot of vertical movement there yet. Most of building work initially starts underground. And so that’s what will happen initially. And depending on how well the weather cooperates and other circumstances, I think you’ll start seeing particularly houses on the east side starting to go up.”
A new tax structure will be in place on the Mayflower area. Graybau said it is similar to a Redevelopment Agency.
“Basically, there is a tax increment. And so as buildings get built, they add value to the land. And we have a system that we’re building to try and accommodate two different steps in the process. There’s a step in the process when the buildings are first in the process of being built and before they’re occupied. And that’s the part that we’re actually very close to launching. And so what we’re doing is we’re trying to track the difference between what the historic base value is, and then what the new market value is, and be able to communicate with MIDA on what those values are, so that they can then process the fees associated with participating in the MIDA project area.”
Out of the dollars generated by the incremental value of development, a portion will be allocated among the government entities in Wasatch County. But the county itself won’t see any of that funding.
“But once the buildings are occupied, almost all the taxing entities will get 25 percent of that new growth. And the other 75 percent will go toward infrastructure and other changes that are happening in that area. The exception is that Wasatch County actually giving up 100 percent of the property tax in exchange for the services to the area that will be paid for through the municipal taxes that MIDA can collect. The tax increment will last for 25 years, from when those buildings become occupied. And the county itself won’t collect anything above the original base value. The other taxing entities will collect 25 percent of it, but the county will be compensated differently than those entities, through those municipal taxes.”
Dustin Graybau, Assistant Wasatch County Manager.
