While COVID-19 dominates the headlines, Summit County Council Member Glenn Wright notes that they’re still working on items like transit. We talked to Wright about his take, after the recent Transit Summit with Park City.
As we’ve reported, the recent meeting of the Park City Council and Summit County Council brought out remarks from a City Council member, contending that a Regional Transit Authority would infringe on the city’s land-use authority.
In response, Wright said that was not a well-founded fear.
“If we were to put together a regional transit system, all of the entities would have input as to where they wanted transit to occur within their jurisdictions. I think the cities and counties need to work together to create a more comprehensive system. And maybe where the planning comes in is how those systems go together. If you’re having thru routes from Kimball Junction into the city, where do they end. If you’re having thru routes from Heber City, where do they end. Those are some joint decisions we have to make.”
He said that in the near future, they would likely be meeting with the Wasatch County Council about transit.
“Wasatch County is going through a planning process now on transit within Wasatch County and connecting to both Utah County and Summit County. I’ve sat in on a couple of their meetings. They need feedback now from the Councils on what types of governance creations we would come up with, and what kind of financing mechanisms. The financing mechanisms are mostly Wasatch County decisions because they don’t have the transit taxes that we have now. But coming up with kind of a joint concept on what the governance will look like is something the County Councils will have to come up with. And I’m sincerely hoping that Park City will join us in that.”
Summit County Council Member Glenn Wright.
