Summit County councilmembers approved Ordinance 1016 in a split 3-2 vote Wednesday.
The ordinance requires less detail from developers up front when they’re asking to change what’s allowed on unincorporated Snyderville Basin land. The new process would still require the county and a landowner to agree on building heights, density, layouts and other aspects of a project.
Community Development Director Peter Barnes said before, a rezone required substantial engineering drawings and documentation resulting in wasted time, effort and money.
“It should reduce government bureaucracy,” he said. “It will reduce the number of times that staff are required to review abortive work.”
Barnes also said the ordinance will make the process more transparent.
He said the changes will likely mean more rezone applications, but decisions will be made sooner, including negative recommendations.
“In setting the expectation with the applicant, setting the expectation with the public, and with the bodies that review the project, I think that's transparency in and of itself,” he said.
The ordinance became controversial last month as community members and councilmembers raised concerns that rezoning would become too easy. Council vice chair Roger Armstrong worried the change would remove opportunities for public comment.
“Zoning is, and should be, one of the hardest things we do,” he said. “It is the vision of what this community should look like, based on the people that elect us to be here, based on the number of interviews that we do, the public input that we get to create the zones that we create.”
Armstrong and council chair Canice Hart voted against the ordinance.
Councilmember Megan McKenna, however, liked that the changes are backed by the Synderville Basin Planning Commission and that it will help them bring rezones to the public sooner.
The ordinance proposal was spurred in part by Summit County’s efforts to negotiate a partnership with Columbus Pacific Development on the county-owned Cline Dahle property in Jeremy Ranch.
The proposal went back and forth for four years before the planning commission gave it the thumbs up in July.
Councilmembers finally approved a rezone for the project Wednesday from rural residential to community commercial.
The Crossroads at Silver Creek project includes 90 housing units with a park and clubhouse, a 4,000-square-foot nonprofit building and 32,000 square feet of commercial space.
Summit County is a financial supporter of KPCW.
