About 100 people watched online and another 20 joined in person Tuesday night when the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission asked for public input on a plan to turn land that is now tennis courts into townhomes.
Comments from the public were overwhelmingly opposed to the plan. Arch Wright said his home has a front-row seat to the property. He expected the lack of parking spots to lead to cars lining Pinebrook Road.
“I've lived over 40 years in places like Park City, Vail, Aspen — we all know they’re just going to be jammed full of people,” Wright said of the townhomes. “(There’s) limited driveway space in front of each unit, and effectively no meaningful overflow space for 22 units crammed into a 1.1-acre property. I appreciate they're saying they have seven (extra parking spots) or so, but that's nothing.”
Other commenters focused on the parking, as well, in addition to the sheer number of units on the land.
The developer, Resonance Ventures, is seeking to change the zoning governing the 1.1-acre parcel to allow 22 townhomes to be built there.
In asking to rezone the property, the developers are facing an uphill battle. The Summit County Council ultimately makes that decision, and it has discretion to accept or reject the proposal as it sees fit. The county has a rule that says, essentially, it won’t grant any new entitlements unless the project has compelling community benefits that can’t be delivered any other way.
To meet that hurdle, the developer is proposing to make this project entirely affordable housing. It would be restricted to those who make 80% of the county’s area median income or less, which is nearly $75,000 for one person and $107,000 for a family of four.
Sean Steinman, CEO of Resonance Ventures, said in a letter to the county that he’d go lower than that, and the project would have a “strong mix” of units for people who make 60% of the AMI and some townhomes for those who make 30%, which is roughly $28,000 annually.
The materials available at the meeting did not include specifics about how many units would be delivered at what price.
Steinman told the commission that his firm considered other options for the land, but wanted to help address the county’s affordable housing shortage.
“Our most profitable path was actually to move forward with a large-scale home on the site. And that would be the number one profitable space for us to jump into,” Steinman said. “And in doing that, we don't see that that would be the highest and best use for this space to make a connected community development project that is going to then, you know, accommodate for affordable housing within the community as well.”
As the meeting approached 10 p.m., Commission Chair John Kucera suggested a decision wasn’t likely that night. But Commissioner Chris Conabee made a motion to forward a negative recommendation to the county council, which commissioners voted to do. Most said the project doesn't offer enough benefit to the community to meet the threshold required to entitle new density.
The county has not yet said when the project will go to the council.
