Summit County attached a redlined and updated version of the Utah Olympic Park development agreement to its April 15 council agenda.
It changes the approval process for a 120-unit hotel from a conditional use permit to a low-impact permit. That means another public hearing is not required.
The draft agreement says the county will also support the UOP’s efforts to be designated a “major sporting event venue” ahead of the 2034 Winter Olympics. State law allows such venues to form public infrastructure districts, which means the UOP could issue bonds like governments do.
The agreement also defines how the UOP is allowed to use the back gate at the top of Bear Hollow Road in the Sun Peak neighborhood.
After almost two hours of negotiation April 1, however, Councilmember Roger Armstrong said it’s still unclear how much housing the development agreement will allow.
“In a traffic study, Fehr & Peers uses 222 units as the measure under the 2025 plan that [UOP] put forward. And then when I asked the question, what came back was something closer to 100 new units,” he said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” April 2.
The residential building already on the property includes 72 units for athletes and coaches.
According to the development agreement’s traffic study, the UOP was allowed to build a total of 141 dwellings in 2011, plus a winter sports school and office space.
The traffic study for the new proposal imagined 222 dwellings, the hotel, a different mix of office space and no school. Another attachment to the draft agreement says the UOP would be entitled to build 170 affordable units for athletes, coaches and its workforce.
Armstrong says the council is close to answering all its questions and expects the UOP to say more about the affordable housing question at the next meeting.
County Manager Shayne Scott wouldn't say for sure if the council would vote April 15.
“I just never know. I think so? I think we’re poised to,” he told KPCW April 14.
The vote has been pushed numerous times this year after Sun Peak residents raised concerns about various parts of the development agreement.
Residents around the Snyderville Basin worry about traffic since the council is also considering a proposal to redevelop the Junction Commons outlets with housing. That’s in addition to the controversial Dakota Pacific project approved last year.
Scott says the council has been meeting in Kimball Junction for most of this year to make it convenient for residents to attend discussions about the UOP.
Wednesday’s meeting will be back in Coalville, the county seat. Scott says that’s because of items related to the North Summit Fire District.
Summit County and the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation are financial supporters of KPCW.
