The Summit County Council on Wednesday approved an ordinance setting up a new type of Snyderville Basin Transit District. County Council Member Roger Armstrong says that is a big step not only for the County, but could affect many transit stakeholders in the whole Wasatch Back.
Roger Armstrong said they’ve had a Transit District for a while, but starting back in the 1990s, it contracted with Park City for service.
Armstrong told KPCW that growth has occurred in the Basin, and the county has garnered revenue with new transit sales taxes, so the city and county started to think about different roles.
“Shall we continue with the status quo, or would it be better for Park City, which has a very robust transit system, to be able to focus on the routes that they have within the city limits, cause they do have a substantial number of routes running in the city. The county’s a little different. We’re spread out a little bit more. And Park City’s way of running systems may not be compatible with what we need. And just the flexibility and ability to move around didn’t fit, I think, either with Park City or Summit County, so our demands on them caused them to scratch their heads and say, ‘I’m not sure that we can make this work within our system. And that kind of push-back led us to try and figure out a way that we can make it run better.”
He said the county will have its own District formed and running by next June. But there will still be links with Park City.
“Because that’s important for both Park City, to keep down their traffic issues, for us to be able to have a system in the unincorporated areas that moves people in and out of Park City—and then, for Park City to accept those and move them out to the Basin when they’re done.”
Armstrong said they needed to approve a Transit District Ordinance this week, or soon after, given the state laws governing them.
“There are very specific state codes that regulate how those boards have to be set up, how you regulate the operations and management of small transit districts, annexation, a variety of more technical issues. So this document that you mentioned, we had to pass last night or we had to pass at some point, to incorporate state law, and make sure that our transit system is compliant.”
An early draft said the District’s governing board would have seven members—and two would be from County Council. But the Council decided to make it from five to nine members—and three from County Council.
Armstrong said that for the District to succeed at least initially, they felt more control by the County was important.
But Armstrong said that could change. They’re aiming to be a regional body, as they perhaps take on transit from the East Side of the County, Mayflower and other areas around the Jordanelle and Wasatch County.
“Under state law, if you annex a new municipality or even a new county joins with the system, then based on the number of miles of transit that they provide—and that’s a slightly technical calculation but—based upon that, they earn board seats, they’re entitled to board seats on that transit district. So if we can become truly regional, then, yeah, it’s gonna start to wash out.”
