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Show A-2 The Park Record The Park Record. Serving Summit County since 1880 The Park Record, Park City’s No. 1 source for local news, opinion and advertising, is available for home delivery in Summit, Wasatch, Salt Lake, Davis and Utah counties. Single copies are also available at 116 locations throughout Park City, Heber City, Summit County and Salt Lake City. SUBSCRIPTION RATES In Summit County (home delivery): $56 per year (includes Sunday editions of The Salt Lake Tribune) Outside Summit County (home delivery available in Wasatch, Salt Lake, Davis, Weber and Utah counties; all other addresses will be mailed via the U.S. Postal Service): $80 per year To subscribe please call 435–649– 9014 or visit www.parkrecord.com and click the Subscribe link in the Reader Tools section of the toolbar at the bottom of the page. To report a missing paper, please call 801–204–6100. 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No portion may be reproduced in any form without written consent of the managing editor or publisher. Wed/Thurs/Fri, January 15-17, 2020 County ready to play defense as session nears Unlike 2019, there is not specific legislation officials want passed ALEXANDER CRAMER The Park Record The 45-day sprint of the 2020 Utah Legislature’s general session is set to begin in less than two weeks, and Summit County officials say they’ll be paying close attention so they can play defense whenever necessary. But unlike last year, they aren’t pushing any specific bills. Deputy County Manager Janna Young is in her third year coordinating the county’s legislative strategy. Soon after she began, she convened an internal working group of high-ranking department heads and elected officials that meets weekly while the Legislature is in session to determine who’s going to follow which bills and compare notes about what the county should be paying attention to. The Legislature deals with hundreds of bills during its general session, making it imperative for the county to split up the workload and delegate tasks according to priority and expertise. The county leans heavily on the Utah Association of Counties during the general session to keep up-to-date on what’s happening and to lobby on its behalf, officials said. UAC is Continued from A-1 Wohali fight continues pad and a small commercial zone. Opponents of the development have said that it threatens the rural town’s identity and decried what they see as the lack of effect the public’s opposition has had. “People don’t mind being disagreed with, but they clearly mind being ignored,” referendum advocates wrote in a statement included in the referendum materials. Wood added that she hopes that voters are able to vote in June having clear information about what the development would mean for the community. “Ultimately the public wants to a nonpartisan organization that holds regular meetings for county officials from across the state and lobbies for Utah’s 29 counties. Summit County is coming off of an unusually productive 2019 general session in which two initiatives it backed became law, one that created a community renewable energy program and another that dealt with wastewater. This year, the county isn’t pushing any specific legislation, which officials said is the case more often than not. But Young said the county does have policy goals it will advocate for, including staving off any effort to redistribute the transient room tax statewide, gaining access to the resort communities tax, increasing funding for indigent defense and beefing up staffing at the Utah State Tax Commission to increase its ability to effectively collect taxes, especially on services like bookings from national travel sites. She added that the county will also be paying close attention to potential changes to the tax reform legislation passed during a special session in December, which will likely draw the eye of many Utahns. The session is scheduled to run this year from Jan. 27 to March 12. It’s a dynamic time when changes can happen suddenly and the county has to be vigilant to make sure its interests are represented. For example, County Councilor Kim Carson said reacting quickly to a topic like sales tax redistribution is critical because it’s the kind of thing that usually goes in the direction of harming the county, not helping it. The session is so busy, Young said, that governments often end up working with the legislators who represent them geographically, rather than those that might align with their interests ideologically. All five of the Summit County councilors are Democrats, while four of the area’s five legislators are Republicans. Summit County has had to contend with its reputation as affluent and liberal when pursuing legislative ends, officials said, underscoring the importance of building coalitions. The impact of the county’s reputation has lessened in recent years, Young and County Manager Tom Fisher said, largely as a result of trying to increase communication with legislators. “We work on our reputation a lot,” Fisher said. “It’s not aggressive, it’s just from the standpoint of building relationships.” Carson said others perceiving Summit County as wealthy and liberal can make it harder to pursue the county’s interests in the GOP-dominated Statehouse. She stressed the importance of communicating with legislators about the issues and what a bill would accomplish. Carson said she plans to travel to the Statehouse every Thursday during the seven-week session, which is the day that UAC has its weekly meeting to gauge the various counties’ positions on bills. The county contingent also typically includes Young, County Councilor Glenn Wright and Deputy County Attorney Jami Brackin. Brackin is seen as a statewide expert on landuse issues and is involved in many groups on Capitol Hill, Young said, and Carson added that Brackin’s experience is particularly helpful in anticipating potential problems before they arise. Summit County also employs a lobbyist, Des Barker, who works on the county’s behalf and joins in the strategy meetings. The county pays Barker $45,000 annually; the county’s UAC dues are $77,000. Carson said land use is a common subject of legislation. As an example of the kinds of bills the county would have to monitor, she recalled a push in previous years to mandate developments be approved by planC ning departments within two weeksm of an application’s submittal. While that may sound innocuous, Carson said developments that shouldn’t be approved are the ones that often take the longest. “We actually are very good about getting them turned around in that time unless there’s an issue with the plan,” she said. “We can’t determine how long it’s going to take (the applicant) to provide information that’s needed or to correct a deficiency in the application.” The county advocated against that measure, which was defeated. continue to have an influence on the growth that is coming our way,” she wrote. “Our hope is that the referendum can be a tool to help shape a project that better (complements) the vision of the community.” Water and access road issues proved to be controversial during the approval process, and members of the public and a City Councilor requested an independent analysis of the development’s financial impact. At full build-out, proponents have claimed the second-home community would yield financial benefits, including $6 million for the North Summit School District, $3 million for the city and $600,000 for the North Summit Fire District annually. Opponents of the project have requested the land remain at the zoning designation it held when it was annexed into the city in 2018 — one residence per 20 acres of land. The 1,525 acres could yield 76 residences. But Johnson has said the number of residences under that zoning could double if the developers used incen- tives to keep open space, and that each residence would also be entitled to an accessory dwelling unit. “Do people really understand this? (If the referendum is successful) there’s still a project of some sort,” he said at the December meeting. “Under current zoning ... (they’re) still able to put a golf course, a couple hundred homes.” But in that case, officials have said, amenities would likely no longer be publicly accessible and it would threaten the plan to put a denser village core in the center with a small commercial zone. The consultant hired by the city to shepherd the project through the approval process, Don Sargent, said if the referendum were to happen and the original zoning imposed, Wohali would become a private golf-course community like Glenwild. “I think you’d see an absolutely gated community in that scenario — everything they can do to make it exclusive,” Sargent said in December. “There would be absolutely no public benefit that would be offered. I don’t see a developer in the world offering that.” Wood allows that the project would bring benefits to the city, including improvements to water infrastructure. The development would be hooked into the city’s water system, and the contemplated agreement calls for it to bring in new water by drilling wells, for example. Wohali would also pay for a water diversion and storage system from the Weber River. “The public needs to be fully aware of all the differences between the two proposals so they can vote informed,” Wood wrote. “Our efforts have been to bring the choice to the people.” The zoning change is on hold while the referendum process plays out. If organizers fail to gather the necessary number of signatures, the change would go into effect after the Feb. 24 deadline. The next step — referendum aside — is for the city and the developers to negotiate a development agreement that would include more specific aspects of the plan. The Park Record (USPS 378-730) (ISSN 0745-9483) is published twice weekly by Wasatch Mountain News Media Co., 1670 Bonanza Drive, Park City, UT 84060. Periodicals postage paid at Salt Lake City, Utah, 84199-9655 and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Park Record, P.O. Box 3688, Park City, UT84060. Entered as second-class matter, May 25, 1977, at the Post Office in Park City, Utah, 84060 under the Act of March 3, 1897. Subscription rates are: $56 within Summit county, $80 outside of Summit County, Utah. Subscriptions are transferable: $5 cancellation fee. Phone: 435–649–9014 Fax: 435–649–4942 Email: circulation@parkrecord.com Published every Wednesday and Saturday Direct Importer of the World’s Finest Rugs A t t h e H i s t o r i c Vi l l a T h e a t r e 3092 So. Highland Dr., Salt Lake City (801)484-6364 888.445.RUGS (7847) Mon.-Sat. 10 am to 6 pm |