Dakota Pacific Real Estate owns about 50 undeveloped acres west of the Skullcandy headquarters.
Its latest proposal includes 695 units of housing, 240 of which would be for people earning 80% or less of Summit County’s median income.
The company is only allowed to build tech offices—the equivalent of 24 more Skullcandies plus parking—under its current development agreement with the county. The Summit County Council has hesitated to allow housing in part because of traffic concerns.
Councilmembers gave Dakota Pacific a counterproposal earlier this month. It included a request not to build housing until the Utah Department of Transportation commits to improving state Route 224 and Interstate 80's traffic flow.
Dakota Pacific said at the Feb. 22 council meeting it could wait until UDOT takes action—but it can’t wait longer than six years to start building.
The developer proposed a system of three milestones.
The first milestone is if the council adds housing to the development agreement. That would greenlight senior care and medical facilities, plus all 240 affordable units.
Dakota Pacific’s Director of Commercial Development Steve Borup told councilmembers that doesn’t mean they can or would deliver all those units immediately.
He said they need the right to build affordable housing to then apply for government tax credits that could finance the housing.
“So we need that entitlement. If we have that entitlement and development agreement signed, we can start that process, and then hopefully deliver those earlier to the community,” Borup said Feb. 22.
The second milestone is getting Kimball Junction traffic improvements on UDOT’s list of projects, called the “strategic transportation improvement program.”
The STIP is a list of projects UDOT wants to complete in the next six years.
Once the junction is on the STIP, Dakota Pacific suggests phasing in market rate units.
The final 80 market rate units would phase in at the third milestone: when road improvements are built. But the developer doesn’t want to wait longer than 2029 to break ground on those final units, which CEO Marc Stanworth told council are “really valuable” to them.
“We feel confident that we can get on the STIP. Otherwise, we wouldn't go to some sort of phasing plan like this. We're confident that we can all collectively do that,” Stanworth said. “We're also confident that once we're on the STIP, we're going to stay on the STIP and the [road] construction will happen in a reasonable timeframe.”
The county and developer have both said they can lobby state leaders together to make that happen.
But before Kimball Junction can be on the STIP, UDOT needs to decide how it would address traffic.
It’s expected to choose one of three alternatives by the end of 2024 and announced Feb. 26 it's narrowed the options to alternatives A and C. Check our other coverage for more information, including diagrams.
If the road isn't fixed, according to a traffic study commissioned by Dakota Pacific and vetted by Summit County’s own consultants, backups will get worse with or without development.