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Snyderville Planners Consider Affordable Housing Plan, Horse Project In Silver Creek

The Snyderville Planning Commission, meeting in regular session on Tuesday, got a report on the county’s efforts for workforce housing; and they also voted against a proposed equestrian project in lower Silver Creek. 

The Snyderville Commission got a presentation on the county’s Moderate Income Housing Plan from Economic Development Director Jeff Jones.     Planning Commission Vice-Chair Thomas Cooke said the report, chock-full of data analysis, presented a score card on the county’s efforts to achieve affordable or attainable housing.

They voted to forward the report to the County Council.        

He noted the report is required by state legislation, allowing the county to maintain access to transit funding.       

“The state doesn’t mandate a production report—in other words, you need to do this many moderate-housing units per year to keep up with demand.   But we did talk a lot about the conditions that are out there and sort of the state of affairs in our affordable-housing efforts.  And there weren’t any changes to the General Plan recommended.   It was more of a status report to forward on to Council.”

Cooke said they didn’t formulate any big solutions in their discussion.      The county is seeing  affordable units from current projects such as Lincoln Station on the Bitner Frontage Road; the Silver Creek Village; and employee housing at the Canyons.    But he said they’re still left with a pretty big deficit of needed housing.

Another avenue has been Fees In Lieu paid by developers.    Cooke said the county uses those funds.   But the program hasn’t appeared much before the Snyderville Commission.       

“So we really haven’t seen any projects come before us where a Fee In Lieu was proposed or paid to get out of the entire affordable-housing obligation.  So we discussed that last night and I can’t say that there’s any clarity on-we know there are some things the county does with Fees In Lieu that are paid.   The county has been buying back some units in places like Bear Hollow—buy them back and redo the deed restrictions and put em back on the market.  I see those as really small things, small incremental things.  And we have a pretty big deficit.”

On another item, the Snyderville Commission voted 4-1 (with an abstention from one member) to deny a Conditional Use Permit for the Whileaway Ranch, a proposal in lower Silver Creek for a structure over 14,000 square feet.   It would include an indoor riding arena and a commercial horse boarding operation, though the applicant said it is limited to ten horses and is offered to close friends.

Cooke said the proposal was considered at a public hearing in late October.      

“It’s pretty rare to have an application come in front of us that the staff report says doesn’t comply with our code.  The project came back rather quickly and some architectural changes were made.  And I think the Planning Commission, obviously the ones who voted to deny, didn’t feel that the changes were enough to sort of overcome—we didn’t think there was a substantive change to the design of the building to overcome the issues that we previously had with it.”

He said the use is compatible in a horse-friendly neighborhood such as Silver Creek.

Cooke said the size of the building was a factor, though it isn’t prohibited.   

He said the amount of metal siding on the structure was a concern, though the design was modified after the meeting in October.         

“I think we held a pretty high bar to make sure that it complied with the architectural standards.  I think the take-away was that adding a little bit of stone wainscoting didn’t really mitigate the fact that we basically have a 14,000-square-foot steel building with not much in the way of façade shifts and other things that the code requires.”

Snyderville Planning Vice-Chairman Thomas Cooke.

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.
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