The next public hearing about the Cedar Crest Village in northern Summit County’s Hoytsville is Thursday, May 16.
The town-sized development proposal is the brainchild of area landowners reckoning with the decline of traditional farming. They chose Larry H. Miller Real Estate and Ivory Homes, who applied in 2019 to create a “cradle-to-grave community” that could house the next generation.
Landowners have opted to pool their housing density into central areas to preserve open space.
About 30 have opted in, and the developers have proposed building about 2,000 residential units. More could be built if others choose to join Cedar Crest.
Residents have asked at previous Eastern Summit Planning Commission hearings whether Hoytsville can support a development that size. Existing infrastructure can’t—but more would be built.
And 2,000 units wouldn’t come all at once. The developers propose phasing them in over a matter of decades.
Community Development Director Pat Putt, the county’s top planning official, recently told KPCW’s Local News Hour the existing water system can support no more than 600 units.
“Clearly, additional units can't be approved or platted unless there's ‘wet water,’” he said, “and figuring out—beyond that five to six hundred—what the strategy and the sidebars are on making sure that there's adequate water.”
The current infrastructure plan is to eventually drill three or four more wells, with new storage tanks, transmission lines and treatment tanks added as needed.
When it comes to sewer, there are two options: building a new sewer or contracting with Coalville City to use its existing system.
“I think option no. 1—the public build of the separate system for the time being—is currently what's being proposed,” Putt said. “A number of questions still left to be answered.”
The public has been able to watch or participate in discussions on a monthly basis since a subcommittee forwarded the development proposal to planning commissioners last September.
Eventually, the planning commission will make a recommendation to the Summit County Council, which has the final say.
No date has been set for a potential recommendation. Click here to see the May 16 agenda and attend online.
