Most of the land in the Snyderville Basin is zoned “rural residential,” which usually means only one residential unit per 40 acres.
Developers hoping to do anything denser than that must seek a rezone from the Summit County Council. Community Development Director Peter Barnes says that can be risky.
“The reality on a complex project is that you're well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars — if not over $1 million — to get a set of construction plans that will get you in front of the council,” he said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” July 7. “And of course the council may or may not approve a rezone.”
And if a developer is granted a rezone, it will likely need to spend more to redesign the project before it can break ground.
So what if the county and developer could agree what a project will look like at the same time they agree on a rezone? That’s the new process the county council will consider adopting at its meeting July 8.
“Why have we made the process so difficult for everyone? And that includes ourselves,” Barnes said. “The process itself shouldn't be hard. The design of the project should be the difficult piece.”
The reason the county is considering the revisions is to respond to concerns raised by developer Tony Tyler.
The county chose his company, Columbus Pacific Development, to create a neighborhood, recreation facility and firehouse on the Cline Dahle property in Jeremy Ranch.
Tyler has previously told the council that its current process “frontload[s] a significant amount of cost, time and risk.”
Barnes says that’s also why Tyler’s other rezone application — a mixed-use development at Silver Creek Junction — has been lying fallow for years. That application will be revived for a public hearing at the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission Tuesday, July 15.
Revising the rezone process would only affect future western Summit County developments, since eastern Summit County is governed by a different development code than the Snyderville Basin.
Residents can weigh in on the new proposed process at a public hearing 6 p.m. July 8 at the county offices in Coalville.
Summit County and Columbus Pacific Development are financial supporters of KPCW.
