Utah’s largest master plan developer, Anderson Development, has put out feelers to property owners in Garff Ranches – located between Browns Canyon Road and State Route 248 – to see if they’re interested in becoming a new city in central Summit County.
According to a partner with Anderson Development Steven McCutchan, Anderson Development is not ready to comment on the proposal to incorporate the 17,000 acres between the Snyderville Basin and the Kamas Valley to become Garff Ranch City, Utah.
The email and documents KPCW obtained provide an executive summary that says Anderson Development is proposing to assist property owners in Garff Ranches to incorporate. The primary benefits, the letter says, are great autonomy, the ability to raise revenues and being able to provide local services like water, sewer, and a police and fire department.
The documents can be viewed in the slide show accompanying this story.
According to Summit County Community Development Director Pat Putt, right now, the property is only wired for electricity.
“How we administer them is literally, you know, is under based zoning map, because of their grandfathered, a lot of records status for, they're able to develop a single family home, outbuildings based on that,” Putt said. “There's no public infrastructure out there, I believe. I mean, they are all private wells or, you know, septic systems, there's no sewer in that area. The roads are meet a minimal standard. “
With incorporation, the letter says that property owners can plan for future development to provide retail stores, offices, manufacturing, and a wide range of housing.
The letter asks why is incorporation necessary. It’s answered, because quote, “Summit County severely limits development of land.”
Putt says Garff Ranches is not a subdivision.
“These are old, what we would call grandfathered, or what we would call lots of record properties - they predate zoning,” he said. “And depending on what you want to call Garff Ranches, you know, there are probably upwards to 180, or maybe more parcels in that area and they're around 40 acres in size of the majority of them are zoned agricultural 80, which means one unit per 80 acres. It’s in the Eastern Summit County planning district, so this isn’t part of what we would typically consider the Snyderville Basin, although right next door.”
Not having reviewed the documents provided by KPCW, Putt couldn’t comment as to whether the property can be incorporated...He noted that there are state standards for incorporation and added he has not been made aware of an initiative for incorporation.
McCutchan told KPCW he is not ready to talk to the media. He says they have just spoken with a few property owners to see if there’s an interest in pursuing the incorporation. The documents, he says, were not sent to all property owners – and that they are for internal use.
Back in 2018, Summit County notified some Garff landowners that the building permits they were requesting would not be issued there until the access roads were brought up to county standards. Putt says he believes those improvements have been completed with help from the county.