Several large developments in Summit County, including Silver Creek Village and others, have a board or committee in place to review project designs before the plans move to a decision-making authority like a planning commission.
That’s true for the Tech Center at Kimball Junction, as well, though that development, and that design review board, have been dormant since the construction of Skullcandy’s headquarters a half-dozen years ago.
But now, Summit County Community Development Director Pat Putt said the Tech Center design review board may soon have to reconvene. Putt said he anticipates developer Dakota Pacific Real Estate will submit an application for a medical office building at the Tech Center site.
On Tuesday, the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission appointed its longest-tenured commissioner, Thomas Cooke, to the Tech Center design review board.
Putt said the appointment is not related to a new Dakota Pacific application for a neighborhood-sized residential development on the 58 acres.
“It is possible — it is likely — that we may, in the near future, see a use proposed, an application proposed, for an office building that would be a permitted use under the existing development agreement," Putt said. "If that, in fact, is the case, and a plan is developed, the design review committee will need to review that.”
Putt said his office has not yet received a formal application for the project. Dakota Pacific officials have said they plan to build an 85,000-square-foot medical office building, which the developer and county officials have said is allowed by the 2008 development agreement that governs the land.
Commissioner Chris Conabee did not participate in the portion of Tuesday's meeting dealing with the Tech Center design review board. Conabee said he recused himself because he represented the former owners of the Tech Center, The Boyer Company, on a committee Summit County empaneled to plan the future of Kimball Junction. Conabee was appointed to the planning commission after then-commissioners in 2020 forwarded a negative recommendation on Dakota Pacific’s proposal to build 1,100 homes at the Tech Center site.
The 2008 agreement limits what can be built at the Tech Center, with few exceptions, to technology-related office buildings. Putt said the design review board would provide an initial screening to ensure an application complies with guidelines in the development agreement. Those include items as detailed as material preferences, roof design and light pole heights. The agreement limits building heights to 56 feet, though it appears to allow the planning commission to approve taller structures.
If the medical office building is 85,000 square feet, it would be nearly double the size of the Skullcandy building, according to a Summit County staff report, and nearly triple the 30,000-square-foot Park City Visitor’s Center.
The design review board would forward an application to the planning commission with a positive or negative recommendation, but the commission would not have to follow the board's direction.
Putt said the board includes Dakota Pacific representatives, Summit County staff members and a planning commissioner.
