The Summit County Council may vote on a deal Wednesday with Wasatch County and the developer of Wakara, across the county line.
It’s to resolve a yearslong dispute over construction traffic.
Residents along West 200 South, the gun club road, have complained of large trucks traveling at high speeds kicking up clouds of dust.
Some are headed to the Wakara subdivision across the county line, but the developer also said the bulk were for the final phase of Tuhaye. Both are private, gated developments.
Tuhaye isn’t letting Wakara use its entrance off state Route 248, so the proposed compromise is reorienting the gun club road, at Wakara’s expense.
“They are agreeing to go from the gun club north, through the parcel there that is actually part of the Ure Ranch, and to pave a road and a trail to directly to [state Route] 248,” Summit County Manager Shayne Scott said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Nov. 11. “We believe this would keep the Kamas side, the 200 South side, rural.”
The dirt part of the road that traverses the Ure Ranch would be “restored,” according to a county staff report, meaning the parcels north and south would become contiguous open space.
The Kamas Valley Lions Gun Club would be accessed via the new turnoff farther up the hill on state Route 248.
Summit County would bill Wakara and its future homeowners association for the cost of maintaining the new road, which would be paved. Wasatch County would also need to approve the deal.
The county has been working to purchase the 834-acre Ure Ranch for $25 million over the past two years. Staff say they have secured over $9 million in state and federal grants so far.
Under the proposed road deal, Scott said the dirt path would tee into the newly contiguous ranchland parcel.
“There would be a lot of opportunities with the abandonment of that road to create more recreation in that entire parcel, both on the north side and the south side,” Scott said.
The county says it plans to put the Ure Ranch under a permanent conservation easement once it finalizes the purchase.
Summit County is a financial supporter of KPCW.
