Members of the Summit County Council and Wasatch County Council, meeting Tuesday afternoon, agreed to pursue a regional transportation system, and talked about what the first steps should be.
Summit County Manager Tom Fisher proposed regular monthly meetings, with representatives from the Summit and Wasatch Councils, as well as from MIDA, which is developing the Mayflower Resort near the Jordanelle.
Interim Wasatch County Manager Dustin Grabau (Gray-bah) told KPCW he favors expanding the High Valley Transit District now operating from the Snyderville Basin to include Wasatch County service.
“I would say it’s accurate that we have combined, in synergistic interest, in the transit services. And I think it is just a question of what’s the best way to provide those. Yeah, what’s the next step. And I think what we feel right now the next step is looking at how we can integrate into High Valley Transit and provide those services through that agency.”
He added that with a regional district, it will be easier to leverage federal dollars. And with High Valley already in place, there won’t be a learning curve. Members of the High Valley Transit board were also present at the meeting.
Fisher detailed some questions to start considering. One item is how the High Valley Transit board can expand to include representatives from Wasatch County.
“I don’t wanna make it sound as if we’re the experts in this. We’re a little bit ahead of ya in some of this, but we’re not the experts. I would encourage us to really start working on an implementation plan, and an implementation plan that includes, what does future service look like, how do we fund that, and what do we think we can afford up front, and what can we plan for in the future. It’s gotta cover that governance piece, because we’re as interested in knowing how a transit district can expand to include more members as anybody else is, cause we haven’t done it yet. And we’re excited to work with you to see if that’s a possibility.”
Grabau said a transit district could serve portions of Wasatch County. But his preference would be to serve the whole county, because a transit tax can only be applied county-wide.
Tom Fisher recalled that when the county council proposed a transit sales tax in Summit County, resistance occurred--in part, because taxes aren’t popular, but also because the whole county was being taxed for transit in one area.
However, he said, the council presented one persuasive argument to the public.
“That was part of our education piece, which was, we all contribute to the congestion in our congested areas of our community in Summit County. We’re all shopping in Kimball Junction at some point, or we’re all using 224 or 248 at some point, most likely. It’s not universal, but it’s pretty close. That was a convincing argument.”
Afterward, Summit County Council Member Doug Clyde said it was exciting to see regional recognition of the need for transit.
“Because transit is not just about what happens inside the boundaries of Park City or the boundaries of the west side of the county, or the entire county. It’s about what happens from everybody who has to get from one place to another. And in our cases, Wasatch has been growing dramatically as well as Summit County dramatically over the decades. And we know that we have a lot of transit needs that could be solved there. These are just great and positive conversations that we’re having with Wasatch County.”
Summit County Council Member Doug Clyde.
