A controversial 2024 Utah law allows two preliminary municipalities to begin the incorporation process each year.
People whose land meets the law’s criteria can use it to take control over their own zoning and break ground on new housing or other projects.
That’s what the company Ivory Homes sought to do in Browns Canyon, just minutes too late. It was the third application for a preliminary municipality on New Year’s Day, so it was turned away.
Then one of the other two was rejected this summer.
So the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office went to the next in line, Ivory, which still wanted to proceed with January’s application.
“Our office has begun processing their feasibility request,” lieutenant governor’s spokesperson Amy Iverson said in an email Oct. 5.
Meanwhile, Ivory Homes has also asked Summit County for new zoning that could pave the way for 2,300 to 3,000 units around Browns Canyon Road.
The developer still says it prefers a rezone to town incorporation. But when the Eastern Summit County Planning Commission voted against new zoning, it told state leaders that a preliminary municipality would be “the only way forward.”
Before Ivory’s application had been revived, Summit County Councilmember Chris Robinson spoke with KPCW about the incorporation strategy in September.
“In general, it's sort of a two-pronged approach: If you're a developer, you're going to try to play nice by coming in the front door with an ambitious, I'll call it, euphemistically, proposal. And then in your back pocket you have hopes of, you know, a carrot-and-stick kind of thing,” Robinson said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Sept. 24. “You've got a pretty good stick there, maybe, if you can get it through the lieutenant governor's office.”
Ivory Development President Chris Gamvroulas said “it’s not about leverage, it’s a backstop.” He separately expressed disappointment with the planning commission’s negative recommendation.
“Even if they were recommending a denial, they could have said, ‘But if the county council is going to adopt a zone, here's the things we'd like to see in it, or the things that we'd be concerned about,’” Gamvroulas told KPCW Oct. 5. “But they didn't do that, and so as a result, we're just going to have to see if we can work things out with the county council.”
The developer’s first meeting with the county council hasn’t been scheduled.
Both the incorporation application Ivory filed and the zoning-related application with Summit County are called “Lost Creek.” Both are between 400 and 500 acres in size, but they vary in density.
Ivory’s state application envisions 510 housing units, a mix of homes and townhomes. Half the units would be nightly rentals, and 52 would be affordable.
A rezone with the county could allow thousands of units on land zone for one unit per 80 acres.
But even with the county rezone route, Gamvroulas said Ivory’s intent is for Lost Creek to incorporate eventually. He said it should be able to provide its own municipal services, not rely on the county government long-term.
Ivory Homes is pursuing development on behalf of landowners from the Garff and Rogers families, which have owned land in the area for decades.
Summit County is a financial supporter of KPCW.
