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Show rooms and 75 condominiums. Curiously, the Preliminary Plat application makes no benchmarks in the SITLA contract, then SITLA acquires full rights to the approved mention of the 110 homesites in the phases of construction table, although they are development plan. This means that the Cloudrock Desert Lodge proposal has a life independent of Michael Liss and MMLC; if they don’t build it, SITLA can substitute listed in the Table 1 description of the total project. 56 of the 110 homesites are to be clustered into "seven courtyard villages." Grand County prescribed 24 conditions in the Preliminary Plat approval which have to be met before the County will accept a Final Plat for Phase 1 of Cloudrock. Until a developer is allowed to record a Final Plat for a development, he cannot obtain a building permit or sell lots in the development. The Preliminary Plat is, in essence, a contract between the county and the developer which specifies the conditions under which the county will accept the proposed development. In a large development, the county demands the developer show the total development plan so the county can evaluate density, infrastructure needs, and zoning code compliance for the whole. However, the Preliminary Plat approval which starts the land use code clock applies only to. Phase 1; the developer has a year to make substantial progress towards meeting the development conditions for Phase 1 approval. If he does, he can get extensions of the approval in year increments. If he does not make progress, then the approval lapses. If the preliminary plat approval lapses, the developer has to start all over again with the review and approval process, and is subject to the land use code requirements that exist at the time a new development application is made. If and when Phase 1 conditions are met and the Final Plat is accepted by the county, then the developer may return to seek Preliminary Plat approval for Phase 2, which starts — the performance clock for that phase. In summary, Cloudrock Desert Lodge is a "colonization" proposal for creation of an isolated, self-contained refuge for the well-off adventure traveler. | somebody who will. Grand County is paid a small sum per acre for undeveloped SITLA land in a state equivalent to the Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program on federal lands in the county. When summary, if the SITLA board makes a decision that makes the most money possible off a piece of trust land, they’ve done their constitutionally-mandated job and anyone who doesn’t like it can go fish. The contract between MMLC and SITLA is very complex. In essence, it provides that the land that the Lodge and condominiums are built on will remain in SITLA ownership for a lease fee which is either a stated “floor” price or a percentage of MMLC revenue, whichever is greater. The homesites will be developed at MMLC’s expense, but when sold to a buyer, SITLA will deliver a fee simple title to the lot to lands are leased Tax Base Cash Cow: In the event that Cloudrock R © AON development, was built out, it would I center, as in Santa Fe, mobile home parks and middle-class County, the population center of Moab is where the most affordable housing is located. Most higher-end residential development has occurred in Castle Valley and the edges of Spanish Valley. Cloudrock is located on a mesa top about 20 minutes drive from downtown Moab. Most of Cloudrock’s promotional budget will be directed to travelers, not potential residents. Most of the buyable residential units in Cloudrock will be condominiums which are part of the Lodge complex. These will be rented and maintained by Lodge management for the unit owners, making the condominiums de facto rental suites rather than homes for new Grand County legal residents. : Grand County does not have the winter sports and cool summer environment, or the rich buffet of arts, which other communities colonized by the rich had to offer. I think Michael Liss knows his marketing very well, and is targeting active adventure travelers. How many of these would care to become county adventure residents is unknowable, and whether Cloudrock’s promotion would arouse inflationary pressure on real estate on “poverty flats" (the actual name for Spanish Valley at the turn of the century, with a post office by that name!) below the mesa escarpment is unpredictable. The hodge-podge of 30-year-old house trailers, cheap miner’s housing, and metal buildings around Moab make existing residential areas an unlikely bidding target for rich people wanting sites for trophy homes. : In summary, Cloudrock Desert Lodge is a "colonization" proposal for creation of an isolated, self-contained refuge for the well-off adventure traveler. As such, it may. have no more inflationary or political impact on Moab real estate than the White Mesa Ute Reservation has on Blanding’s property values. Continued on next page... LE copreée ous€e PANG UITCH, UTAH fe 47 NORTH MAIN ST. Books e+ Musice HISTORIC housing developments occur on the outskirts of town. Where public or unbuildable lands ~ surround the town, as in Aspen and Telluride, lower-income people are displaced to other counties and towns. G@ouemet PANGUITCH be an first occurred in the historic center of town. Where private lands are available around the historic HORSES YT the In Aspen, Telluride, Santa Fe, Sedona, et al, the high-end resorts and buy-in of the rich be sold to home buyers and the rest will generate lease revenue for SITLA. The contract provides that, if MMLC decides not to proceed, or doesn’t meet performance MOE non-governmental overwhelming generator of property tax, sales tax, and transient room tax revenues in Grand County. It would also be a major employer. The wage rates are not known, but typically high-end destination resorts pay higher wages to staff because they need to retain able, dependable people to keep their discriminating, wealthy guests happy. Advocates’ claim that Cloudrock represents about the most lucrative form of economic development possible is apparently true. Travelers and second home owners for this sort of high-end project will predictably deposit a lot of: money in Grand County tax accounts while consuming relatively few tax-funded services. Cloudrock as the Catalyst for "Aspenization": This is difficult to evaluate because there is no precedent to a Cloudrock-type development elsewhere in an equivalent location. the buyer. When Cloudrock is fully developed, 220 of the 1,935 acres on Johnson’s will ‘THUNDER for Attempting a Reality Check In Grand SITLA and Taxes Cloudrock Desert Lodge is located on land owned by the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA). SITLA was created to administer lands granted to the State of Utah by the U.S. government at statehood to the benefit of the School Trust Fund. SITLA is not a part of either the executive or legislative branches of Utah government. The Utah Governor makes appointments to fill vacancies on the SITLA governing board, and the Utah Legislature reviews and approves the SITLA administrative budget annually. The Governor and Legislature otherwise have no say over the decisions SITLA makes concerning sale or lease of state trust lands. Legally, those decisions can only be appealed on the grounds they failed to properly exercise SITLA’s fiduciary responsibility to the School Trust Fund. In SITLA development is subject to a "privilege use fee” which is the same assessment by the Grand ‘County Assessor on the value of improved land and buildings as is assessed on private property. SITLA land sold to homebuyers in Cloudrock is assessed and taxed just like any other privately-owned property in the county. Thus, land leased by SITLA to Cloudrock will generate just as much property tax to Grand County as the land: would if Cloudrock bought it. Art DISTRICT! OR (435) 676 8900 www.buffalojava.com |