Developer Ivory Homes wants state leaders to open the preliminary municipality process to more than two applications per year.
That’s the controversial state law that allows landowners to create towns in undeveloped areas. It has incited a tug-of-war over whether the state or local leaders should have more say in development decisions.
As the law stands, the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office can accept two applications per year; Ivory’s bid for a town of over 500 homes in Browns Canyon was too late to secure a spot in 2026.
A copy of an August email, obtained by KPCW through a public records request, shows the developer wants to expand the program.
In a message to policy experts, attorneys and lawmakers, Ivory Development President Chris Gamvroulas suggested changes to a piece of draft legislation about the tool.
The bill draft is not yet public.
“As a threshold issue, the limitation of just 2 PM’s per year must be removed,” he wrote. “After spending hundreds of thousands of dollars over 18 months trying to work in good faith with a county and not finding any middle ground, and to still have no recourse is unreasonable.”
Gamvroulas wrote the law is needed when local governments “fail to… make meaningful progress on housing needs or fail to provide an objective process for evaluating development proposals.”
He said Summit County’s zoning and general plan make it impossible for property owners to make “meaningful land use proposals.”
Summit County Manager Shayne Scott said the local government is pro-housing.
“I think we are being a little bit unfairly targeted as anti-growth or anti-housing, which is absolutely not the case,” he said. “We are in favor, as we have well documented, of correct growth, of managed growth, of well-planned growth.”
He cited the county’s recent approvals of a zone change for Junction Commons, where about 60% of the 370 units will be affordable, and for the Crossroads at Silver Creek project, which will include 70 market-rate homes and 20 affordable units.
“We’re pro-housing,” he said. “We are just not in favor of having a housing development spring up somewhere where we have not planned for it, put in infrastructure — and we certainly don’t want to be left holding the bag if something goes wrong.”
Leaders in Summit and Wasatch counties have said they object to developers “usurping local land use control.”
Scott said removing the two-application limit on preliminary municipalities would be “going the wrong direction.”
Wasatch County Manager Dustin Grabau said his county likewise opposes the change. It passed a resolution Sept. 2 urging a repeal of the preliminary municipality program. That followed a threat from Gov. Spencer Cox to pull funding from “counties who openly declare war” on the state over growth issues.
Gamvroulas confirmed he’s working with lawmakers on proposed changes but declined to comment further.
He previously told KPCW that Ivory filed the preliminary municipality application “as a contingency.”
“We’ve had prior experience, and we have real concerns about whether a project of this size can be processed in a timely and predictable way,” he said in January.
Gamvroulas also pointed to what he sees as flaws in the application process. The law stipulates that the first two applications each calendar year are accepted.
“The past year there were 4 applications submitted within 30 seconds of each other,” he wrote. “There must be a better way to conduct this process. If the cap on 2 per year are removed this doesn’t continue to be a problem.”
All four applications were in the Wasatch Back, including three in Wasatch County, plus Ivory’s proposed town in Summit County.
Other developers were copied on Ivory’s email, including Philo Development. Philo is the sponsor of Wasatch Highlands, east of Heber; and Willow, a preliminary municipality from 2025 that’s planned near Kanab.
The lieutenant governor’s office declined to comment on the proposed changes due to ongoing litigation.
Weber County Sen. Calvin Musselman and Morgan County Rep. Tiara Auxier, both of whom are included in Ivory’s email, did not immediately respond to KPCW’s request for comment Sept. 10.
Auxier unsuccessfully proposed a reform bill last year that sought to let counties weigh in during the preliminary municipality process.
Summit County is a financial supporter of KPCW.
KPCW’s Connor Thomas contributed to this report.
