The boundaries of West Hills, a town proposed west of Kamas, have been drawn and redrawn multiple times since April 2023.
Town sponsor Derek Anderson, a real estate lawyer in Salt Lake City who owns acreage on state Route 248, has finalized the map residents may vote on.
The new boundary encompasses about 3,600 acres, around state Route 248 and the gun club road, and extends north like “fingers,” as Summit County’s top planning official put it.
As required by state law, consultants assessed whether the town could raise enough tax money to survive. Reports by LRB Public Finance Advisors have twice found West Hills could do it.
Click here to read LRB's latest feasibility study.
Assuming there is residential and commercial development, LRB projects a 5% budget surplus.
A spokesperson for Anderson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. But the town sponsor has previously said he is projecting less density than in the first plan LRB looked at.
His numbers aren’t a development application so much as a demonstration that West Hills can balance a budget. LRB’s current study assumes 50 homes will be built before the end of the decade, 245 new households and 10,000 square feet of industrial commercial space.
West Hills’ population, currently 103, would be nearly 600.
Despite the consultants’ stamp of approval, Summit County staff, the South Summit School District and the governments of every other incorporated Kamas Valley city have concerns.
In a letter attached to LRB’s study, Oakley, Kamas, Francis and the school district call the town’s borders “obviously gerrymandered.” County Community Development Director Peter Barnes compared its shape to “somewhat arthritic fingers.”
That’s in part because several landowners requested to be left out of the town. The deadline to ask Utah's Office of the Lieutenant Governor to opt out has now passed.
The county planning department has repeatedly raised concerns about the lack of sewer and other infrastructure in the area. Barnes wrote that places the county calls “villages” are better locations for growth: Peoa, Wanship, Echo, Upton, Marion, Hoytsville and Woodland.
Of those, only Hoytsville is currently considering development. The developer there is now asking Coalville to consider annexing the area in part because of a lack of sewer infrastructure.
Barnes believes it’s more logical for West Hills to annex into Kamas than become a separate town.
Developers who own some of West Hills’ land already asked Kamas for that, offering 1,600 homes and the property tax revenue to boot. Kamas said no.
West Hills’ town government may think differently, but the incorporation route will require a vote.
After the January hearing, Anderson must gather signatures to put the town on the next November ballot.
The signatories must account for at least 10% of all registered voters within the boundary, and own at least 10% of the land and 7% of the land value.
Only residents within West Hills boundaries may vote on it.
The public hearing will be at South Summit Middle School Jan. 6, 2025, at 6 p.m.
Click here to submit questions about West Hills for the second public hearing.
