The Summit County Council isn’t coming to a decision any time soon on the Dakota Pacific project at Kimball Junction – they are scheduling a series of discussion meetings with the applicants over the next month or two.
County Council Member Glenn Wright told KPCW that in discussions with the applicants, the Council has defined the issues that have to be resolved for a Dakota approval.
He said that county representatives and the developers will form at least four “sub-groups” and hold regular meetings.
Each sub-group includes two Council Members. Wright said that which Council Member will be assigned to which discussion group hasn’t been decided. It will likely be determined by their particular interests.
“For example, I’m particularly interested in Sustainability, Doug from a design standpoint. I think Malena and Roger are very concerned about affordable housing, as we all are. But those things would be peak interests for Council Members involved.”
A related topic on Wednesday was Council Member Chris Robinson, who recused himself last fall after he accepted some Jazz tickets from a friend who, he later realized, is associated with Dakota.
Wright said he agreed with his colleagues that hopefully, Robinson can join in the deliberations on the project.
“Chris has so much expertise in development, that we really value his opinion on these issues. He really got kind of booby-trapped on the recusal. He really didn’t have to—and it actually cost him a fair amount of money to pay for the tickets that were originally given to his kids. I think with anybody on the Council, if you recuse yourself anytime a friend is even peripherally involved with something before the Council, very few of us would vote on anything.”
He said that Robinson still has a chance to catch up on the Council’s deliberations.
“The summary we have right now, I think, is a good starting point for him. Chris is just a really honest guy, and he felt that it was something he should do at the time. He did it without really consulting the attorney’s office. (Leslie) So does he have to go back now and listen to all the missed discussions that he’s not been part of? (Wright) I think that’s up to him. I think more than likely he will just look at the summaries we have so far, see if he agrees with them, and move forward from there.”
On another issue, Council Member Roger Armstrong has suggested that Dakota, with a proposed 1100 residences, is adding density to the Basin. But Wright said that, under the factors they’re considering, it’s not an increase.
“It certainly involves increase in people that are living in that area. But that’s not the definition of density for that, for the original project. I think we have to base our opinions there, if it’s increase in density, on legal opinions from County Attorney’s staff. (Leslie) You’re just looking at square footage. (Wright) Yep.
He compared Dakota to the existing plan for the property, approved 12 years ago as the Boyer Tech Park.
“We’ll actually have more people there, on a daily basis, with the old plan. I would think there would be more employees in those office buildings and just thousands of more inbound commuters every day. Yes, we will certainly have more people living there permanently. From a traffic standpoint, that tends to spread the traffic out more evenly over the course of the day. And if we get the housing agreements right, we can fill a lot of the affordable housing with a lot of resort workers. They will have walking access to public transportation. That should mitigate a lot of traffic problems that would come from the increased number of people there.”
Wright added that it’s hard to say when the Council will get to a decision session.
