The Summit County Council passed a resolution opposing “any efforts to sell, transfer, or dispose of” federally managed lands within Summit County at its meeting June 25.
Councilmember Megan McKenna asked for the rest of the council’s support in light of Utah Sen. Mike Lee’s effort to dispose of some federal lands, he says, to build new single-family homes to fight housing unaffordability.
Environmental groups and recreation advocates have sounded the alarm about the measure in recent weeks because vast quantities of U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management parcels in popular areas would have been eligible for sale. It previously included much of the Wasatch and Uinta mountains.
“I think this is one of those issues that will, or has the potential to impact Summit County residents, but also has provided an opportunity for us to really come together on something that is not partisan, something that I think Summit County residents overwhelmingly and Utah residents support, which is our public lands,” McKenna said June 25.
Now Lee has walked back his proposal.
The Utah News Dispatch reports no forest service land is on the chopping block anymore, meaning hardly any land in Summit County could be listed for sale.
The BLM would still be asked to sell between 0.25% and 0.5% of its land in 11 western states — Montana is exempt. The old requirement was 0.5% to 0.75%.
Now, only land within five miles of the “border of a population center” can be sold.
McKenna, formerly a housing advocate with Mountainlands Affordable Housing Trust, said it’s still worth speaking out even though the Senate parliamentarian sent Lee back to the drawing board since the first version of the sell-off provision violated procedure.
“My hope really with this resolution is that not only are we telling the residents of Summit County that we want to represent them, and their values, but hopefully that it'll inspire other counties and municipalities to do the same,” she said.
Councilmember Roger Armstrong and Council Vice Chair Canice Harte expressed disappointment June 25 with the Utah Association of Counties’ stance on the issue.
Armstrong said he received an email from a UAC representative asking Summit County to support the sale of public lands. And he said the organization previously asked the county to support former Utah Rep. Phil Lyman’s defense fund after he organized an illegal protest ATV ride on federal land in southern Utah in 2014.
“I find UAC’s positions quite challenging on a regular basis,” Harte said. “I understand other elected officials within the county benefit from it, but I question greatly Summit County's participation in UAC, with their continued stances and behavior.”
Councilmember Chris Robinson pushed back during the discussion.
“Having been around the state a lot, I know that there are our counterparts who are good people in many southern counties where it's a very high percentage of federal lands where they feel hemmed in, and so I think we shouldn't be too harsh to judge,” he said.
Harte and Armstrong clarified they’re not judging specific counties so much as questioning the trade organization that advocates for those counties to take a specific position.
“I'm in favor of the resolution,” Robinson responded. “I'm just pointing out that there are differences, and that if we were, if we were born and reared and elected in those counties, we might have a different opinion.”
About 44% of Summit County is federal land, nearly all of it national forest. The resolution opposing the sale of those lands passed unanimously.
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