The Summit County Council took a field trip to Ecker Hill Middle School on Wednesday. Later, the council voted 3 to 2 to approve the height exception for the district to begin moving forward with the remodeling of Ecker Hill Middle School. The project still needs to return to the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission for review of a rezone, conditional use permit, and master plan development.
Summit County Council member Glenn Wright – along with Malena Stevens and Chris Robinson - voted in favor of the height request. Wright explained why.
“The three of us who voted for it -- while we don't like special exceptions, there's significant amount of community benefit there. And the actual net result is some of the HVAC will stick up six inches higher than the existing building. So not the end of the world for me. Doug and Roger voted against that, on the basis of not setting precedents on special exceptions. That's a reasonable argument. But I think the three of us thought there were more community benefits in getting the school in there, in this space available.”
During his time on the council, Roger Armstrong has consistently voted against special exceptions, unless the request meets the unique circumstances allowance in the code.
“I don't like special exceptions,” Armstrong said. “I think that they open a door for mischief and I’m always worried about precedents. In this case, they said it was a design decision. And I thought, then when you do your design, you know what the high limit is, that's not a mystery. Do your design with a height limit on it. They didn't. I don't want to get into a position where we're doing special exceptions for design purposes. That's not what it's intended for.”
Council member Doug Clyde says just because it’s an important public facility doesn’t mean schools get to break the law, and this approval was against the law.
“We got people building schools without permits, we've got people grading without permits,” Clyde said. “In this case, we had to change the zone, because the school wasn't even allowed in the zone. I come from a long regulatory background. Roger is a lawyer, so he tends to be rather fussy about law things. And they just did not do their job, period.”
Meanwhile, the two school projects that are supposed to be underway in Park City at Park City High School and McPolin Elementary School are at a standstill, with rented construction equipment and purchased materials sitting idle.
Park City Planning Director Gretchen Milliken reported last month that the planning department is working with the school district to get the conditional use permit applications for the two schools filed. The high school will also have to apply for a variance because a portion of the building will exceed the height limitation.
She is hopeful that the projects can get on the planning commission agenda sometime this fall.
** UPDATE ** Milliken says the school district has submitted conditional use permit (CUP) applications for both projects and are applying for a variance for the additional high school height. The Board of Adjustment is scheduled to hear the variance at its Oct. 18 meeting. The CUPs are scheduled for the planning commission's meeting Oct. 26.
“We’re working with them,” Milliken said. “We’re trying to make sure that this gets on the agenda in the fall. We do have a very full agenda with the planning commission. But I think we're going to be able to squeeze it in at some point.”
