Next Wednesday was supposed to be the first time the Tech Center development reemerged in the public realm after it faltered late last year.
In December, nearly 1,000 people attended a late-stage public hearing mostly to oppose developer Dakota Pacific Real Estate’s plan to build 1,100 homes at Kimball Junction.
Summit County Councilors have said the record turnout revealed how out-of-step with the community the process had become. In a seeming bid to reverse that, the council invited a community group that formed to oppose the project to join the discussions next week.
The group, called Friends of Summit County, sent a letter to the council last month requesting to meet with the developer and elected officials.
Some councilors, including Chair Chris Robinson, seemed receptive to the idea. It was later described as a request to form a subcommittee involving county officials, the developer and the opposition group’s leadership.
But County Manager Tom Fisher told the council on Wednesday that was no longer happening.
“Conditions have changed,” Fisher said. “(Dakota Pacific) has been meeting with a lot of community groups, including the group that sent the letter. … In order to do something like was, that was being contemplated with a subcommittee back in January, they have to agree to that. They have indicated to us that they don't believe that's in their best interest.”
A Dakota Pacific representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mitch Solomon, a spokesperson for Friends of Summit County, said the group is looking forward to the meeting and learning more about the process moving forward.
“As long as that process includes significant opportunity for communication to and from the community, with complete transparency, we can likely support it,” he wrote in a message to KPCW. “We are eager to hear the council's thoughts on what this process will look like, but it is important that it include careful focus on the points raised by the community in December including: specific community benefits, traffic impacts and mitigation, a fiscal impact study, sustainability, and affordable housing, among others.”
It’s not unusual for residents to form groups to oppose development projects, but it is unusual for those groups to be formally invited to join negotiations. County Councilor Doug Clyde, who has been involved in ski area development projects for 40 years, said it would’ve been the first time he’d seen it.
“They're not an applicant with standing, they’re a member of the public that has concerns,” Clyde said. “And their concerns need to be heard, but they don't have the same standing as the applicant. And we cannot essentially meet with other groups behind the applicant’s back in some sort of effort to change their project or their entitlement.”
Next week’s discussions were slated to be about the process of how to move forward with Dakota Pacific’s revised development proposal when it is submitted. The talks were not meant to negotiate elements of a future development, like how many houses or apartments should be built and where.
Fisher said next week’s council meeting will still feature a Tech Center discussion, though it will only include county officials.
The county has yet to receive a revised application from Dakota Pacific. Robinson said the county would be ready to meet with the developer when that happens.
