The Francis City Council recently approved two hotels near the middle of town, both of which will be part of larger commercial developments.
But that was only after marathon, hours-long meetings at both the planning commission and the city council.
“I like the engagement. I wish we had that type of engagement at all our meetings, especially as we come up on actually making decisions on this code,” city planner Katie Henneuse said April 17 at a planning commission meeting attended by only two members of the public.
The code in question relates to conditional use permitting — the process by which the hotels were reviewed and approved.
Henneuse said the city has seen pros and cons with the current CUP policy, the pros being public input.
But the public input was lengthy. Some meetings topped four hours — standing room only.
April 17, the city was served with a lawsuit from its own residents appealing the decision to approve one of the hotels, a Best Western. It’s on the northwest corner of state Route 32 and Lambert Lane.
Adjacent residents say the city’s own rules require 24-hour businesses to be “away from” neighborhoods.
Francis’ attorneys have said that part of the code is too vague to enforce. They have not filed a formal response in court.
For the most part, city councilmembers said they were legally required to approve the Best Western because the developer’s plans adhered to city code.
Henneuse pointed to what she saw as a gap in understanding regarding the city’s ability to regulate private property owners.
“I feel like the public really did get to a point where they did understand what we could look at and couldn't with a conditional use,” she said. “But at first, we heard a lot of, ‘Just don't do it,’ and that wasn't super helpful.”
CUPs were only a discussion item at the April 17 Francis City Planning Commission meeting. The board has yet to make any decisions.
The city could remove and replace them with another type of permit.
It could also make CUPs the sole responsibility of the planning commission, rather than have the commission and the city council hold public hearings.
“The alternative is to lessen, maybe, the legal jeopardy and complexity of some of our processes by offloading this, right? So the hazard is somehow creating a situation where we're lessening the public's ability to provide input,” Commissioner Scott Buchanan said. “I think that's probably the balancing test.”
Francis is one of the few cities and towns in Summit County where the city council issues conditional use permits.
Park City, Oakley and county-level planning commissions handle CUPs in their jurisdictions.
In Coalville, the city council issues CUPs.
Kamas has two types of conditional uses listed in its code: one decided by the city council, and another “administrative” CUP decided by the planning commission.
