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Show Page A2 Thursday, May 26, 1994 The Park Record D Section A r r 1 i; Planning interlocal agreement makes another county coup by CHRISTINE CAPUTO Record staff writer History was made yet a second time this week when the county Board of Commissioners adopted another interlocal agreement which authorizes joint and cooperative participation in land use planning, development approvals and the provision of urban services. This agreement, between Summit County and Park City Municipal Corporation, is the first of its kind in Utah as well. "No other county has had two jurisdictions formalize the mm ritxxim tur ixmttr V awcoui Attrrm taw. Forum addresses affordable homes continued from A1 percentage of residents goes down for those who work for property management companies: maids and janitors. "Any survey is a snapshot in time," Rademan said. "It could change in the future, but Park City is clearly at a crossroads. Over 50 percent of employees currently live in the Park City area, but this will probably diminish in the future without intervention." Steve Thomas told what happens if a city does not make some provisions for affordable housing for its lowest-paid Citizens. "A J'Last summer the BLM and the Forest Service kicked some 600 people off their land. They were summer tourist season employees who had nowhere else to live. In the summer our population explodes like Park City's does in the winter " Thomas said. He also described how his community was changed by a lack of affordable housing Board approves new impact fees continued from A1 new students) of just over 7 percent, the district estimates it will cost taxpayers over $110 million in construction costs for new schools by the year 2012. According to Dr. Don Fielder Superintendent, "We're doing the best we can to make long-range long-range projections, but we could be off in our estimates.'' The district is using the growth rate from the past 13 years (7 percent) to determine its projections. If the district were to use the figures from the past five years (9.4 percent) the $110 million figure would balloon to $192 million and the new student figure would go from 10,436 to 17,624. In asking for the impact fees the Board is hoping to avert a slowdown slow-down or halt to new housing developments in the county. According to concurrency regulations in the Snydcrville Basin Development Code, the county must delay development if it will cause a student-to-teacher ratio to rise above the Board-mandated 25:1 ratio. Fees will continued from A1 subject to change from year to year based on costs, students per family, and consideration of taxes paid, will be imposed and collected when building permits are issued for developments. The actual amount of the impact fee to be imposed was determined by the county Wednesday at a special meeting. Primary residences will be charged $3,393 this year and secondary residences will be charged $848.25. According to studies performed by the school district, the new facilities which shall be cooperation of land development," said Community Development Director Bruce Parker. Both Summit County and Park . City are experiencing rapid population growth and increases in the number of applications for development approvals. Since such approvals may have impacts on both political subdivisions, they equally recognize that it would be in their best interests to work together to manage growth and development This would allow for efficient delivery of governmental services by either or both parties and would avoid duplication of public facilities. The agreement sets forth the terms and procedures under which the parties can participate jointly in the planning process for areas both inside and outside the existing city limits without making changes in jurisdictional juris-dictional boundaries. Specifically, the agreement states that "the county shall give recommendations andor take actions on applications being reviewed by the city, and the city shall give recommendations and "We saw a mass exodus of the young and the elderly into Idaho and Wyoming. Families who had lived here for generations had to pack up and leave because they couldn't afford to stay," he said. Jim Lewis, who is a partner in the Snyder's Mill project and a longtime realtor, said that free market forces should be allowed to work in the area. Rich Wyman, of the Coalition of Residential Renters, countered with a remark that drew applause from many in the audience: "I don't see how you can say the free market is working when people are being driven out of their houses." Former Planning Commissioner, Chris Erickson, also addressed the issue of a free market. He said: "We're willing to tinker with many things in the free market. We sell land to mining companies for $5 an acre and we have extremely low grazing fees on ranges, why can't we tinker a little bit to get affordable housing? The district arrived at the $3,393 primary residence figure by multiplying the average building cost per student by the average number of students per dwelling unit and then applying a tax credit of over $2,100. The $848.25 charge to secondary units uses the same formula but is then given a 75 percent credit When a building permit is issued the builder will declare whether the unit is a primary or a secondary residence. The district will monitor the new homes to see that there are no mistakes in the declaration (primary or secondary residence) made by the builder. "There will be a mechanism in place (ordinances) for the city or county to go back and change to a primary residence," Fielder said, "but the taxes are higher annually for a secondary residence so we don't anticipate any problems." District Business Administrator Burke Jolley said, "We tried to be very conservative so the new owner would be paying a fair share." Mike Barnes, one of the owners of the fund new needed in Summit County over the next 20 years are estimated' to cost more than $100 million to build. Plans consist of building two elementary schools, each with a 650-student capacity, two middle schools, each with a 1,000-student capacity and two high schools each with a 1,400-student capacity. Impact fees are not to be used; to correct existing deficiencies or to operate or maintain the schools, rather they are only to be used for the construction of new facilities. Since the school district lacks proper authority to impose or take actions on applications being reviewed by the county." Joint actions and recommendations will aid in the anticipation and planning of future growth. Parker explained that the agreement basically gives the county a say, if it wants one, in development matters within the incorporated areas of Park City, and gives the city a say in development matters throughout the Snydcrville Basin. The crucial aspect of the agreement rests on its intent of voluntary cooperation. "There are no enforcement provisions in the agreement," said Parker, "we are simply formally deciding to cooperate." The agreement has an initial term of three years, at the end of which term, it may be renewed for additional three-year terms. Either party can, however, terminate the agreement at any time. This apparent option -out clause leads to doubts about the future effectiveness of the agreement, "but since all parties are making positive moves here," said Parker, "we can only expect that they would want to uphold the agreement." Along with adopting the agreement, the board adopted a resolution that provides a procedure for processing applications for development approval in accordance with the agreement. The board expects that the city will adopt the agreement this Thursday. Baker explained how Aspen's affordable housing program works. "We've been at it about 20 years," he said. "Currently we have houses for 30 percent of the workforce. Our goal is 60 percent. It's very expensive. We just paid $950,000 plus $250,000 for construction for 11 units. The market place has shown it is not going to provide housing for itself, so we now require businesses to do that. We've calculated that a business will employ three people for every 10,000 square feet" of 'office space, so we require them to build houses for a percentage of -their workforce." J u ; Baker said Aspen also uses a system of deed restrictions to ensure housing remains affordable. The city has enacted a real estate transfer tax of one percent and a .45 percent sales tax increase as well, to pay for affordable housing. "The city felt that the diversity of the community was what made Aspen, Aspen," Baker said, Southridge development addressed the Board saying, "With all the figures you're starting with I would call it the impact fees generous. We feel very pleased with it and I think I can speak for the realty community. We realize the quality of schools is directly proportionate to our pocket books." The school district will hold the fees that are collected for four years at which point the statute of limitations expires on any legal challenges that may arise from the imposition of the new fees. "We have five separate attorneys who believe that this is a defensible position should a we have a lawsuit," Fielder said, "but I think people will perceive it as fair and there won't be any challenges." As the interlocal agreement specifies, challenges to the legality of the impact fees will be the responsibility of the district If there are any problems with the way the fees are collected then the city or county would be responsible for any legal costs. schools impact fees by itself, it must join with the county and city to use their authority to implement such a program. Any legal challenges to the implementation must be brought within the next four years, otherwise all revenue generated by the fees will be turned over to the school district in order to commence building. At this time, the only party who has yet to adopt the interlocal agreement is Park City. The adoption by the corporation should take place this Thursday with the agreement becoming effective immediately after. Eye on i . I'll 1 1 1 iff . , it NW BtF if K I n 4 1 f , 1 4 1 i ' v fifth HnjE r(;f: i 1 m h ' , ,-,F :LJ J : r mm Living h IQtnrx Canyon lllbL Ul y housing Case against district continued from A1 25, on the case against the student because with two weeks left in school it would be a moot point to expel him. Fielder went on to say the School Board will discuss the options that lay before them, but it is his intention, at this point, to appeal the expulsion of the student to the state Supreme Court If the Board were to win the case it would establish the right of the Board to expel a student using the district's "zero tolerance" policy. The student in question would also be expelled at that point for the number of days he would have missed had he not sued for readmission. It may be that due to financial considerations and other influences Elders speaks to Park continued from A1 dollars on 'sick care' and only 0.8 percent on preventative measures like prenatal care, clean water and education. "If we don't fix our health care system as well as our 'sick care' system, it'll be like a bike with two flat tires. If you fix one, you may think you're going fast, but you aren't," she said. "Social and behavioral problems are the cause of 50 percent of the preventable deaths," explained Elders. "Ten percent of the preventable deaths in the U.S. each year are related to lack of access to health care. This means we're going to spend $940 million to fix the health care system that will only impact 10 percent of the causes of death. We must find ways to keep people healthy, not just take care of them when they're sick." Citing success in lowering road deaths due to driver education, building safer cars and designing safer roads, Elders said the nation Park City photo by Nan Chalat-Noaker "J Long before there was a museum or an official Historic Society," Bea Kummer was Park City's historian. More recently, "Bea's", Lodge" in Daly Canyon has been a mam stay of affordable for countless local employees. For more on Bea, see B1 7. that the district will choose not to pursue the case, however. "If the to justify doing so," Fielder said. Risk Management Office of the The next Board meeting is Attorney General decides not scheduled for June 14. " Summer bus service begins-1: Park City Transit will begin summer bus service May 28. Buses will operate Saturday through Sunday at 20-minute intervals from 7:40 a.m. .to 10:15 p.m. In addition, the Main Street Trolley will operate from 1 p.mjo 5 p.m. daily. For further information please call 645-5130. " Reading program at library "Spurs, Space and Spyglass" is the theme of the 1994 Summer Reading Program at the Summit County Library. Open to children, ages five to 12, this program is designed to encourage and emphasize the joys of reading. Children may now register for the program. The Summit County Library is located at 2734 Rasmussen Road. For more information, call the library at 649-1784 must approach keeping Americans healthy the same way. But she also said: "Violence has now overtaken automobile accidents as the leading killer of our young people. One hundred and thirty-five thousand young people take a gun to school on any given day. I've heard about Park City . School District's zero tolerance policy. It sounds like a good idea, but if you kick a kid out of school for carrying a gun, he's going to be out on the streets, breaking windows and causing trouble. He'll also get behind in school. This sounds like a good policy for the school, but not for the community. "The average length of time a person spends learning about health in a lifetime is 44 hours," she continued. "We spend 12,000 hours teaching the three Rs: reading, writing and arithmetic, but you can't make sick kids learn. "We spend $5 million on nutrition education, but Mr. dismissed appeal the case it would be difficult City crowd MacDonald spends $40 million teaching kids to eat Big Macs. 1$ been proven that if kids don't star; to smoke by the end of high school, they'll never smoke, but the tobacco companies spend $4 million every year to tell our young people they'll be 'slim, sexy and sociable' if they smoke," she added. Elders had a few ideas about how her audience should go about solving these problems. She suggested public health associations must form new partnerships with schools and businesses to educate the public. j "We're the world's besl networkers," she said. "We've gQl to go out and use the tools 6f commitment: tongues, talents anil treasures. My bishop told me thqt being in public health is likj; dancing with a bear. When you ge?t tired, you can't just stop and sjt down. You've got to wait until the bear sits down. That's why I'm always looking for new partners to carry this work forward." |