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Downsized Dakota Pacific proposal draws downsized crowd of opponents at public hearing

About 200 residents turned out for the public hearing on Dakota Pacific's proposed development at Kimball Junction on March 1. The meeting is at Ecker Hill Middle School to accommodate crowds.
Connor Thomas
/
KPCW
About 200 residents turned out for the public hearing on Dakota Pacific's proposed development at Kimball Junction on March 1. The meeting is at Ecker Hill Middle School to accommodate crowds.

Wednesday featured a three hour-long public hearing on Dakota Pacific’s proposed development in Kimball Junction. It’s the first of two before the Summit County Council votes.

Red was back in fashion at Wednesday’s Summit County Council meeting. Nearly 200 people attended the public hearing in person, and at least 130 online. A sheriff’s deputy was on hand, too.

A similar hearing in Dec. 2021 drew almost 1,000 total attendees, a Summit County meeting record, to say nothing of the rest of Utah.

Wearing red signals opposition to an application by Dakota Pacific Real Estate to rezone the Summit Tech Park in Kimball Junction for a mixed-use commercial and residential community. And opposition was the order of the night.

Energy started out high, especially against the backdrop of Senate Bill 84. Summit County officials say the bill targets them, threatening to greenlight the development regardless of what the council decides.

Some attendees brought signs to the public hearing, and others applauded as they marched in shortly after 5:00 p.m. when the hearing began.
Connor Thomas
/
KPCW
Some attendees brought signs to the public hearing, and others applauded as they marched in shortly after 5:00 p.m. when the hearing began.

Really only two people had somewhat favorable things to say. Former Council Chair Glenn Wright spoke early on about Summit County’s housing emergency and even about elements of the developer’s original rezoning proposal from 2021 that seemed promising.

Wright quoted The Rolling Stones about not getting what you want, but getting what you need. That drew some boos.

Later, Megan McKenna, a housing advocate at Mountainlands Community Housing Trust, reiterated the housing emergency. McKenna also noted how much of the working class was not in the room Wednesday night, even though the housing debate affects them greatly.

Some in the crowd laughed when McKenna asked Dakota Pacific to negotiate in good faith with the council. But neither she nor Wright told councilmembers to vote “yes” on Dakota Pacific’s application, and that was about as favorable as things got all night.

The rest of the 37 people who gave public comment at the hearing expressed everything from skepticism to attacks on the developer’s character.

Top concerns included how the development might aggravate traffic and the looming SB84. The developer did admit last week that its lobbyists communicated with state officials who drafted language in the bill that the county and many residents object to.

County officials continue to emphasize to the public how the most helpful comments pertain to specific land uses and this particular rezoning application. But many speakers still brought up SB84 and called on the county to fight what some called state overreach.

Council Chair Roger Armstrong began the night by calling on everyone to be respectful, and he interjected intermittently throughout the hearing to remind people to be civil.

But as the night went on, the crowd settled into routine applause after each speaker told the council to vote “no.”

At the very end of the hearing, Armstrong invited the developer to say some words. Dakota Pacific CEO Marc Stanworth said he thought some of the numbers other speakers cited may have been inaccurate.

The crowd stayed quiet and respectful, and the council adjourned around 8:00 p.m., 30 minutes earlier than scheduled.

The next public hearing will be Wednesday, March 8. The council could take a vote on the rezoning application the following week on March 15.

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