Utah’s 2024 “preliminary municipality” law enables landowners to create towns in mostly undeveloped areas. This year saw four applications across Summit and Wasatch counties.
After leaders from the two counties discussed asking the state to repeal the law, Gov. Spencer Cox sent his housing advisor to Heber to deliver a warning.
“My message back from our good governor, who cares deeply about these issues, is: your funding as a county is now at risk, meaning none,” Steve Waldrip said at a Heber City Council meeting Aug. 18.
In response to the governor’s message, Wasatch County leaders will meet Friday, Aug. 28, with Cox’s office to seek a resolution.
Councilmember Erik Rowland said the conflict stems from a miscommunication and the counties aren’t breaking any laws.
“We’d love to realign those misconceptions and go, ‘Hey, where did that come from?’” he said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Aug. 26. “That was not what we were saying at all. This is what we’re trying to accomplish, and let’s try and come up with a solution together.”
He said Wasatch County has been frustrated by developers “sidestepping” local approvals after the county denies requests for high density.
“There’s a very specific reason why we’ve established the density and the zoning that it is,” he said. “They don’t like it, they go to the state and go try and get what they want.”
The pilot program allows two preliminary municipalities to proceed each year, and for 2026, the lieutenant governor’s office accepted two applications from Wasatch County.
Wasatch Highlands would create a town of about 2,200 people on land east of Heber. The preliminary municipality is adjacent to land owned by the Utah Trust Lands Administration, which is also facing proposed development.
The second application, Bear Canyon, was for a town near the Utah County line. It failed to meet all the state’s requirements.
A spokesperson for the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office told KPCW Aug. 18 that staff haven’t yet determined whether another application can take Bear Canyon’s place this year.
