Snyderville Basin planning commissioners unanimously gave the Kimball Junction project a positive recommendation July 8. Commissioners Tim Jeffrey and Eric Sagerman recused themselves and Heather Peteroy was absent.
It’s a different project than the one commissioners didn’t recommend in 2020, but very similar to the plans the Summit County Council ultimately approved 4-1 last December.
Dakota Pacific Real Estate is now proposing 725 residential units alongside a public-private partnership to redevelop the land around Skullcandy’s headquarters where Summit County’s offices, library and transit center are. About half the housing in the overall project is affordable.
Now it goes to Summit County Manager Shayne Scott, who will ultimately approve or deny the development agreement. Community Development Director Peter Barnes said the county manager is tentatively scheduled to hold a public hearing and make a determination July 28.
Barnes also said the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission will see Dakota Pacific again. The company needs to get the architecture and aesthetics of the project approved before it can get any building permits.
“Dry as development agreements are from a legal perspective, if you look at this as the end of the beginning rather than the beginning of the end, then hopefully we'll be making many friends in the future — talking with future applicants and talking with each other about those things that are to follow,” Barnes told the commission.
Commissioner Matt Nagie did ask about residents’ effort to block the December development agreement with a referendum petition this year.
Thousands signed the petition to put it on the ballot; a top concern has been traffic and whether it will become worse with Dakota Pacific’s development.
“There’s been obviously a very complicated political and legal process to get to where we are today. Would you care to narrate for us, humanize the decision today to be before us for this administrative development agreement, given the legislative development agreement that was passed by the council in December?” Nagie asked. “Basically, why are we here today, given what has transpired in December, of course, given that there was the challenge by the residential population?”
Sagerman, who recused himself, was one resident who signed the referendum petition prior to being appointed to the planning commission. It’s unclear why Jeffrey recused himself.
CEO Mac Stanworth responded that it’s possible for challenges to prolong the process for months or years. He also referenced Senate Bill 26, which lawmakers passed in March and which mandates county staff, not the council, approve the project.
“Given that uncertainty — the state made it very clear what they wanted to happen. And they basically said, ‘Both of you parties, try to get together and come up with a solution,’ which we did. And so the result of that was, ‘Okay, you did your job. Now we need to move this thing ahead in in accordance with what was agreed upon,’” Stanworth continued. “There was an agreement made. Let's move forward on a timeline that is now predictable. That's why we're here.”
Nagie said that raises a question about the role of citizen referendums.
“I hear you say that the state made it clear one way, and as the residents went through a process of their own that is allowed under state law,” he said. “I'm curious if you'd care to speak more to, you know, to the public about where that process fits, I guess, in the project?”
Stanworth said he appreciated the question but that the meeting was not “the right forum” to address it, before county attorney Lynda Viti interjected and instructed the commission not to discuss the referendum. She said it wasn’t relevant to the decision they were asked to make July 8.
The referendum effort is currently in 3rd District Court, where a judge has been asked to decide whether the Summit County Clerk’s Office was right to throw out dozens of packets of signatures and ultimately declare the petition “insufficient” June 23.
The new development agreement would not be subject to a referendum if approved by the county manager.
Summit County is a financial supporter of KPCW. For a full list, click here.
