Residents of Hideout who organized a referendum on a controversial annexation into Summit County have obtained enough signatures to put the question on the ballot.
The vote is scheduled for June 22nd of 2021.
The Hideout Town Council on October 16th voted to approve an annexation of 350 acres into the Richardson Flat area of Summit County. They also authorized their mayor to enter into a Town Center Development Agreement with businessman Nate Brockbank—after a discussion where Brockbank suggested that residents could put his plan to the test with a referendum.
According to Hideout Town Attorney Polly McLean, a referendum needed signatures from 40 percent of the active voters the town had as of the beginning of 2020.
One of the organizers, Ralph Severini, told us that they got roughly 90 signatures over the weekend before Thanksgiving.
Wasatch County’s Clerk/Auditor Cal Griffiths reported the referendum needed 75 signatures. On December 1st, the county verified 82 of those.
Severini is a member of the Hideout Council and voted for the annexation in October, given the possibility a referendum could be held. During that meeting, he said that developer Brockbank needed to do more to sell his vision to the public, including towns surrounding Hideout.
In his e-mail this week to KPCW, Severini said that the referendum will allow voters in the next six months to review information that they expect to be forthcoming from various public and private entities.
Town Attorney McLean said how the election will be conducted hasn’t been determined at this point.
