The Summit County Council put a controversial December 2024 decision to bed Sept. 3, voting to undo its original approval of a development planned for Kimball Junction.
But as a court said last week, that doesn’t change the “practical reality” that developer Dakota Pacific Real Estate can still build its housing project next to the Skullcandy building.
That’s thanks to a new state law that, according to the Aug. 26 ruling, “provided the same use and zoning changes … and restricted the county to a purely administrative role.”
That is, Senate Bill 26 required county staff, not the council, to approve Dakota Pacific’s development. It made the county’s December approval moot and undercut a citizen referendum that wanted the project on the ballot.
Vice Chair Canice Harte said the council received numerous emails asking them to repeal the ordinance this week.
But he worried some constituents thought that undoing the ordinance would block the development. He says that’s not the case.
“It's important for people to know that Senate Bill 26 really ‘spot zoned’ this project in there. So regardless of what we did with [the county ordinance], Senate Bill 26 prevails,” he said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Sept. 4.
Referendum supporters have suggested challenging the constitutionality of SB26.
The development at the center of the controversy includes 725 units of housing in western Kimball Junction — half for workforce — and a mixed-use public-private partnership. The partnership with Summit County involves expanding the Kimball Junction Transit Center and 160 additional affordable housing units.
Chief concerns from residents have been the potential for more traffic in the area and bearing the majority of the cost of the public-private partnership.
Summit County is a financial supporter of KPCW. For a full list, click here.
