The Hideout Town Council will vote Wednesday night on whether to approve an annexation of 350 acre of Summit County. The property is owned by Mayflower Stichting in the Richardson Flat area.
At a work session Tuesday night, council reviewed the details of a draft Master Development Agreement of the annexed property with developer Nate Brockbank. The development is now called Silver Meadows.
The draft prepared by Brockbank and his attorney, Bruce Baird, includes some 600 residential units, including cottages, condos and apartments. That would include 480 market-rate units, and 120 units of affordable housing.
Baird explained how they settled on 600 units for the density. “Six hundred iswhat’s needed to drive the things that the city wants out of this, like all the dedications that the city wants, which are being donated now, as opposed to dedicated for sale. Like schools are normally sold. They’re not given. Town Centers and police facilities are normally sold, they’re not given,” said Baird. “The town has asked for goodies, and goodies cost a need for the developer to make a profit pencil. That’s why the number is what it is, cause that’s the number it takes to pencil the project.”
The draft plan calls for 95,000 square feet of commercial. A major site would be a grocery store. Beyond that, no more than 25 percent of the commercial would consist of chain stores.
The Town Center would include a three-acre site that could be a location for a police or fire station, or a possible Town Hall. A site of eight and a half acres would be the possible site for a school.
Council members also discussed how commercial development will be phased, in conjunction with the residential. Since the development area is near Richardson Flat, another item concerns the oversight, testing and possible remediation of any heavy metals. Baird said that Brockbank is taking on more legal exposure there than anyone.
Another point of discussion involved the road connections from the project. The Town Center is bisected by Richardson Flat Road, which connects, at the east end, to the Brown’s Canyon intersection, and at the west end, to Highway 248 near the entry to Park City. But Hideout Council Member Jerry Dwinell said he wants to make sure they have two roads that are planned to connect north to Highway 248.
However, Baird and Brockbank said it’s unfair to make them commit to those road connections. They said they can’t control whether Summit County will allow the road links. “We don’t control the ability of Summit County to allow the connection to that road,” Baird said. “So you’re swapping one gun at Nate’s head, which is the annexation itself, to another gun, which is approval of the road. You simply just can’t give Summit County a gun to shoot him because, to put it bluntly, Summit County has shown that they don’t care about fairness and reasonableness, etc. And they can quote me on that in their next lawsuit.”
Finally, one provision deals with the applicant’s proposal for a hiking-and-biking chair lift that would connect from the Town Center up to the top of what they call Richardson Peak. The draft says that if both parties agree the chair lift isn’t feasible, or if a better public option can be found, Brockbank will contribute up to $400,000 for a plan acceptable to both sides.
