Summit County’s planning staff and the Snyderville Planning Commission have been considering a new Mixed-Use zone in the Basin for nearly two years.
Snyderville Commissioner Thomas Cooke says that, following their last meeting, the staff has been directed to keep researching details on a possible zone.
We asked Cooke Why it’s important to develop a Mixed-Use zone. Why couldn’t the same purpose be achieved by, for instance, the current Community Commercial zone?
“I’ll give you a scenario,” Cooke explained. “A project comes in that has something that's desirable and this is old history, but in terms of some affordable housing component that we feel that we need in the community. Community commercial also has some pretty intense industrial and commercial uses that if we took a piece of land and rezoned it for a development to community commercial those land use rights would exist. We contemplate that those wouldn't necessarily make great things to have in the context of what’s surrounding that area.”
He said their purpose with the new zone is to focus on neighborhoods.
“Creating a place where people can live and also have some basic services,” Cooke continued. “The whole idea is to potentially live where you work, have some services, and some things to keep people out of cars. So that peoples—we create pockets of places that could make great neighborhoods.”
He noted that developer Henry Sigg is putting forward his proposed Market Place at Silver Creek project, near the U.S. 40 frontage road, as a vehicle to help define the zone.
“I think to say that we had robust discussion about what it should be as a work in progress,” Cooke said. “I think we had some things that we’re considering. We're sending back to staff to work on some of the finer details because I think that's where it works, if we get those finer details right.”
Cooke said the zone they’re looking at would have more density than rural Residential. It would be in an area where transit exists or is contemplated. They’re also considering issues like Sustainability and Open Space.
“Honestly the height is an issue,” Cooke explained. “Because if you want to keep things clustered and dense, but also provide open space you know it has to maybe go a little more vertical than we're used to thinking about.”
We asked if Sigg’s project will determine the parameters of a Mixed-Use zone.
“My understanding is that the developer has taken a crack at writing this code for us and submitting it with his application, while we're also concurrently have been working on it for a while,” Cooke continued. “I'm not sure if this forces us to work a little faster, but it certainly doesn't force us to cut any corners on finer aspects. that would make this zone a useful tool to do sensible smart cluster development. That is not only going to meet our housing needs in the County, but also doesn't just create another strip mall with apartments above or behind.”
