The Summit County Council voted 4-1 to approve the driveway in November.
The driveway would allow residents or guests to access six proposed condos behind Canyons’ Escala Lodge from Red Pine Road.
Nearby homeowners are worried about traffic. So residents in the adjacent Aspen Creek Crossing and Timberwolf subdivisions filed suit Jan. 11.
They say the driveway would lead to a clogged Red Pine Road, and in the lawsuit, ask Third District Court to reverse the council’s decision to allow it.
The parcel where the condos would go used to have a note prohibiting primary access from Red Pine. To remove it, the council needed to find there was good cause and it wouldn’t materially injure anyone.
“The good cause is that, for the proper development of this parcel, it needs vehicular access. And the only way to get it is through Red Pine,” Councilmember Chris Robinson said in November.
The council also found the potential traffic wouldn’t harm nearby residents.
Those residents counter in their lawsuit that “any increase in traffic…is material.”
They say it’s a safety issue, and it’s why the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission voted to prohibit access from Red Pine in 2012.
The condo developer, Tony Tyler at Columbus Pacific Development, bought the parcel in 2019.
He told KPCW 16 total parking stalls are planned—all garage parking. A county staff report shows the six condos would each have five bedrooms.
The planning commission unanimously voted not to allow the driveway in October of last year. That led to Tyler’s appeal and subsequent approval at the council level.
Summit County hasn’t yet filed a response to the new lawsuit. County Attorney Margaret Olson declined to comment on pending litigation.
