Summit County is poised to allow for a cemetery on Bear Cub Drive between the Run-A-Muk dog park and state Route 224.
That’s the second proposed location for what would be the Snyderville Basin’s first public cemetery.
“We've been at this for 2.5 years, and it's — I think it's time. Let us go forward; we'll conduct a public hearing,” cemetery board chair Max Greenhalgh said at the Feb. 25 Summit County Council meeting.
That hearing will be Wednesday, after which the council could vote to approve the location.
During the February meeting, Councilmember Chris Robinson said one Bear Hollow resident had reached out to him with concerns about how a cemetery might impact property values.
But neither he nor Councilmember Roger Armstrong thought a well-done cemetery would hurt values.
“My frustration with this is we're never going to find a cemetery,” Armstrong said. “If we're concerned about proximity to any place anybody may live or not, it's going to be out in the great beyond, someplace that right now we don't have access to, I think.”
Various agencies besides the county need to sign off on subdividing land for a cemetery, which is not allowed under the property’s deed restrictions. After that, the cemetery board would then seek a permit from the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission.
The Snyderville Basin Special Recreation District, one of other parties that needs to sign off on subdivision, paused last year after residents and the Utah Olympic Park objected to the first proposed location in that area.
Members of the public accused the cemetery board of not being transparent at a Basin Rec board meeting.
Robinson said a joint public hearing with the county council is important because he’s heard those accusations too.
“It’s important that we [the council] be there to hear what concerns there are,” he said last month.
The hearing begins at 6 p.m. at the Sheldon Richins Building in Kimball Junction and on Zoom.
Most of the meeting is focused on the Kimball Junction area.
Just after 1 p.m., councilmembers will discuss — but not make a decision on — the Junction Commons outlet mall redevelopment. Then they’ll talk about the bus rapid transit system under construction on state Route 224.
At around 4:20 p.m. they’ll revisit and possibly approve the changes to the Utah Olympic Park’s development agreement they discussed last week.
Summit County is a financial supporter of KPCW.
