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Summit County Council says no to nightly rentals in Dakota plan

Summit County

          The county council’s work session ran about two and a half hours on the mixed-use proposal now being called Park City Junction. The development would be located on the western side of Kimball Junction and include over 1.7 million gross square feet, 1100 residences, and office and commercial space.

The draft plan said that nightly rentals would be allowed in the units being offered for sale—100 townhouses and 80 condominiums.

But Wright said the council turned thumbs down, and the applicants accept that.

          “We are swamped with nightly rentals.  I’ll bet you and I could throw a rock to one from both of our houses.  And the legislature has also prevented cities and counties from doing any research to find out who the nightly rentals are, and even taxing them properly.  My view that I expressed last night was that, if they wanted more nightly rentals, they could have requested a larger hotel and we could have had that discussion.   Nightly rentals are—that is a non-starter with any of the council members.   And I think we got agreement to that last night.  Their engineer said we’re not gonna fall on our sword on that one.”

          Public comment was not accepted at the Wednesday session.

Development Director Pat Putt had stated a public hearing was tentatively set for November 17th. Wright said that might still happen, but the council wants to have a finished proposal to show the public.

          “Some of our people are working with Dakota Pacific right now.    Roger Armstrong has some concerns about some of the legal language in the development agreement.  We’ve got to work out some details on phasing issues with the project, and how that might work.  If we get through those, it depends on how long it takes to get through those kinds of issues.  Some legal negotiations, lawyers can go back and forth forever, moving commas and periods and phrases.   If that happens, it’s hard to say.  If those issues can be resolved in the next few days, then we may make the 17th.”

          Even though the council is busy working on its 2022 budget, Wright said he’s pretty positive a public hearing—and a decision— will happen by the end of the year.

Much of the discussion was about a revenue mechanism that could be applied to properties within Dakota. It’s called a Housing and Transit Reinvestment Zone, a recent creation of the legislature.

Wright said the so-called “HTRZ” could help the council nudge the Utah Department of Transportation to undertake a major improvement project at Kimball Junction to ease traffic congestion. He said the county could move up the priority list of UDOT’s State Transportation Improvement Plan, known as STIP for short.

          “If you get approved for the HTRZ, you are automatically given priority on the STIP, the UDOT STIP.  That would get us from the Priority Two list, which is some a decade or more in the future, to now.  Now being this decade, again depending upon funding.”

          The county favors what UDOT has called Alternative Three, which includes a flyover on Highway 224 at the MacDonald’s intersection, and lowering the level of 224. It’s projected to be massively expensive, but Wright said it will mostly be financed by state and federal funds.

The dilemma for the council is that an HTRZ has to be approved by the state, and there’s a disconnect between Dakota’s desires to move on development, and UDOT’s schedule. Dakota Pacific engineer Mark Stanworth explained the company’s position.

          “There’s no perfect solution to the problems that are faced in Kimball Junction.  We’re trying to be a provider of solutions through this project, which we believe it to be a catalytic type of opportunity here.   Whether it be a period of time when all of UDOT is not in, when part of this project is in, well hopefully, cause we can’t wait around for ten years sitting on the land.  I don’t when that’s gonna be.   Hopefully, it’s gonna be within the next handful of years before 2030 on the UDOT.”

          Mark Stanworth, representing Dakota Pacific.

Known for getting all the facts right, as well as his distinctive sign-off, Rick covered Summit County meetings and issues for 35 years on KPCW. He now heads the Friday Film Review team.