Summit County residents Kristen Schulz, Jennifer Lewis, Joan Meixner and Rich Sonntag were unanimously appointed April 30.
They join councilmembers Canice Harte, Tonja Hanson and Megan McKenna on the seven-person housing authority board.
The county council initially planned to appoint just two residents, but after interviewing 13 qualified applicants, councilmembers decided to expand that number to four.
The council recently set a goal of approving 1,500 affordable housing units in the next 10 years. Part of the Summit County Housing Authority’s job is to facilitate that.
Although it’s independent, the board is likely to take its cues from the council, which has a more specific housing plan in the works.
“Once that's in place, then that will provide some guidance to the authority, and then they can go do the minutiae of making that happen,” Councilmember Roger Armstrong said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour.”
Lewis, Meixner and Sonntag will serve on the board until February 2026.
Lewis is a general contractor and former Park City Area Homebuilders Association president. During her interview with the county council, she spoke about how the Ogden Housing Authority helped her and her mom growing up.
“I went from sleeping on a cot in a homeless shelter, to actually having a place to stay of our own, our own house with a kitchen, food in our fridge, things like that,” Lewis said. “That feeling is pretty profound, and it's life changing and I want to be a part of that in the future for other underprivileged families and kids.”
Meixner is a commercial real estate agent who lives in Pinebrook and a graduate of Summit County’s community planning lab.
“It's not like the Intermountain West or Park City or Summit County has a lock on having issues with affordable housing. It's definitely a nationwide issue,” Mexiner said. “And there are a lot of really creative solutions out there that I think you've all explored already, and the state of Utah has asked modern municipalities to explore.”
Sonntag was formerly the general manager of Promontory, an eastern Summit County planning commissioner and member of KPCW’s board of trustees. He’s also worked with Habitat for Humanity locally.
“Again, the recent failure of the Cedar Crest effort just hammers home how hard that is when you're trying to encourage people to do inclusionary housing as part of a larger, planned community in a legal atmosphere where the legislature says they don't have to,” he said, reflecting on a major Hoytsville proposal he reviewed on the eastside commission.
Kristen Schulz’ term ends in February 2030. She is the executive director of the Early Childhood Alliance at the Park City Community Foundation. Before that, she worked for Habitat for Humanity in Dallas, Texas.
“I think it is essential to really work in a community — and I don't mean check a box that we hosted a community meeting that was, you know, posted in the newspaper, so we could say we did it,” she said during her council interview. “I think each community really has a strong sense of what they want in their immediate community.”
The board’s first meeting has not yet been scheduled.
Summit County is a financial supporter of KPCW. For a full list, click here.
