Eastern Summit County planning commissioners and city leaders are thinking big-picture this summer.
The commissioners are creating a new general plan and the eastside’s first “future land-use map” to guide future development in unincorporated Summit County.
Planning commissioner David Darcey said Thursday the final documents should protect the Kamas Valley. He said he’d like to see contiguous, protected open space through the middle of the valley and not sprawl.
“It will be a failure if our general plan does not reflect that there is green space between Francis and Kamas. We can't have the two cities butting up against each other … where people don't even know if they're in Francis or Kamas,” Darcey, also a Kamas City councilmember, said. “We will have lost our rural character if we let that happen.”
Conversation is growing around maintaining separation along the state Route 32 corridor, where development pressures are spilling over from Park City and Wasatch County.
Planning commissioner Bridget Hayes envisioned a series of gateways between communities.
“If it's an area with trees, it can be smaller. If it's open land, it might need to be bigger — but just something that shows a line of demarcation from when you're leaving one place to when you're going [to] another,” she said at the July 16 commission meeting. “Otherwise we’re going to turn into West Valley.”
But it takes money to fight the economic incentives to develop open space. Summit County’s top public lands official, Jess Kirby, offered her help on that front to the Francis City Council in June.
Kirby has worked with the county’s elected leaders to use a $50 million open space bond to buy up land such as the Ure Ranch west of Kamas.
“Is this something that Francis is interested in? You know, running your own city bond to put matching dollars on the ground?” Kirby asked at Francis’ June 11 council meeting. “If that's something that interests you, I can help you go through that process.”
The county has about $16 million left from its own bond, which voters passed in 2021.
Kirby said southern Summit County landowners can still tap that money, whether it’s selling or simply putting a conservation easement on their property.
“I think the most important thing as we start having these conversations is these are very private conversations,” she said. “We don't want to start talking about somebody's private property without their permission.”
Summit County planning staff are similarly wary because of a clear paradox: Open space has value, and private property owners often have the right to develop it.
Summit County is a financial supporter of KPCW.
