Ivory Homes has petitioned Summit County to create a new zone specifically for land it hopes to develop in rural Browns Canyon.
Company representatives explained the zoning idea to the Summit County Council Wednesday, but there was an elephant in the room.
Ivory has also applied to create a town in Browns Canyon, which if successful would allow the company to rezone its land on its own.
Ivory Development President Chris Gamvroulas addressed the proposed town, called a preliminary municipality, directly Wednesday.
He said that the company’s failed effort to build the Cedar Crest Village in Hoytsville last year factors into the equation.
“No one in their right mind wants to create a preliminary municipality. We do not want to create a preliminary municipality,” he said. “We spent years … with the Eastern Summit County Planning Commission trying to advance Cedar Crest. Years, not days, dozens of meetings. If you were us, what would you do?”
Summit County has pushed state lawmakers to repeal the law allowing preliminary municipalities.
That’s partly because local land use control has become a clarion call in Summit County politics. Gamvroulas offered a different view.
“When we talk about local control, real local control is with the property owner. Then the next level of local control is a municipality, and it is our intent, even if we go through the county process, which is our preference,” he said.
Ivory has repeatedly said the development, called Lost Creek, should eventually be incorporated. Gamvroulas says it should provide its own municipal services, not sap the county government.
The application before the county could allow up to 3,000 homes on 600 acres, six times as many units as Ivory’s proposed incorporation.
Summit County leaders remain skeptical, in part because of traffic and circulation impacts on Browns Canyon Road.
Councilmember Megan McKenna noted that the planning commission gave the zoning proposal a negative recommendation.
“I do take very seriously the planning commission’s recommendation, and in this case, it was unanimous,” McKenna told the developers. “And I do share several of their concerns, of which [Councilmember Tonja Hanson] mentioned a few. But the water and sewer infrastructure are very concerning for this area and for the scale of this proposal.”
Councilmember Chris Robinson has recused himself from the council’s decision and the discussion going forward.
That’s because of his family’s relationship with the Garff family, one of the landowners that enlisted Ivory to develop its property.
Robinson’s father and Ken Garff were business partners in the past, he said, and his family is running cattle on the Garff-Rogers Ranch this year.
It’s not clear when Ivory Homes will return to the council for more discussions about Lost Creek.
A judge in Moab is expected to rule on the constitutionality of the preliminary municipality law within two months after oral arguments in 7th District Court Thursday.
Summit County is a financial supporter of KPCW.
