Utah’s Political Subdivisions Interim Committee will consider revisions to House Bill 356 beginning at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 20.
If they forward the proposal to the full House and Senate for a vote, it could be adopted by the afternoon during the Legislature’s fourth special session beginning at 4 p.m.
Lawmakers originally passed HB356 in March to split the all at-large Summit County Council into five districts. Gov. Spencer Cox signed it into law with the caveat the Legislature would fix “unintended consequences,” namely, that Wasatch County would have to change its council structure too.
Draft changes to the law lift any obligations on Wasatch County, which has not complied with the law anyway, and change what happens to sitting Summit County councilmembers.
As it stands, Summit County’s five councilmembers will be assigned to the new districts at random. The draft changes say that they will be assigned to the district they happen to live in.
If two or more live in the same district, those councilmembers will then be randomly assigned to empty districts.
A committee comprised of Summit County’s clerk, area mayors and an unincorporated resident have drafted a map for the county council to adopt on or before Oct. 1.
The five districts they recommended Aug. 4 are based on school district boundaries and have just over 8,000 people each. They are: South Summit, North Summit and Silver Creek, Summit Park and Jeremy Ranch, Upper Pinebrook and Kimball Junction, and Park City and Canyons Village.
Proponents of HB356 hope the districts will increase representation for eastside residents and Republicans on the historically blue council. Critics of the bill said it was passed with minimal public input and is a partisan power play by the majority-Republican legislature.
Parkites Megan McKenna and Roger Armstrong are the only councilmembers who live in the same district right now. If the changes to HB356 pass, they’d draw lots to see who becomes the Kamas Valley’s representative.
McKenna and Armstrong could both run for reelection in Park City since their terms each expire at the end of 2028. HB356’s draft changes don’t include a special election to reseat a fresh slate of councilmembers, which some Summit County mayors had pushed for.
The law requires the Summit County Council to rubber stamp the recommended map after a public hearing. That hearing hasn’t been scheduled.
The five new districts would be effective immediately after the council’s vote.
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