A state senator has introduced a bill that could pave the way for a movie studio to be built at Quinn’s Junction. Sen. Mark Madsen, a Lehi Republican, is sponsoring Senate Bill 231 but language in the legislation had not been made public by Friday.
Attorney Greg Ericksen said members of his family own the land at Quinn’s Junction. Ericksen is in talks with Raleigh Studios about building a studio on a roughly 30-acre parcel near the intersection of U.S. 40 and State Road 248.
“We want a beautiful community and we would love a film school and Raleigh movie campus,” Ericksen said. “Park City needs a second industry.”
But the land near Park City, which is owned by the Quinn’s Junction Partnership, is not zoned for the 325,000-square-foot project. Summit County officials said Madsen is pushing S.B. 231 to override the local development code and allow the studio.
“Summit County officials are open to the consideration of a movie studio and have invited [Quinn’s Junction Partnership] to submit an application and go through the public process,” Dave Thomas, a deputy Summit County attorney, said in a prepared statement. “Instead, [Quinn’s Junction Partnership] has gone to the Legislature and convinced Senator Madsen to sponsor S.B. 231, which eviscerates Summit County’s zoning, is completely non-transparent, and avoids the public process.”
Ericksen and county officials are exchanging barbs over his accusations that the government has stonewalled the Quinn’s Junction Partnership’s efforts to develop the land.
According to Thomas, the Quinn’s Junction Partnership has never had a right to build 325,000 square feet of commercial space.
Thomas said a sketch plan filed in 1986 by a former owner of the property contemplated a 4,400-square-foot truck stop on two acres at Quinn’s Junction. But the landowner abandoned the plan.
Ericksen claimed he fought for years to build the project but was blocked by the county. Through arbitration, the Utah State Ombudsman’s Office determined a few years ago that Quinn’s Junction Partnership had a vested right to develop commercial real estate on the land, he said.
But Thomas said the Quinn’s Junction Partnership did not submit a development application for a truck stop.
The firm instead wanted to build “300,000 square feet of high-density commercial uses,” Thomas said.
“Ultimately, the arbitrator indicated that [Quinn’s Junction Partnership] at most had a vested right to a 4,400-square-foot truck service center. Although the county disagreed with that finding because the 1986 sketch plan had been abandoned in 1987, it would have abided by that decision,” Thomas said. “The arbitrator never stated that [Quinn’s Junction Partnership] had a vested right to any commercial use other than the 4,400-square-foot truck service center.”
But the development code that was in place in 1985 would have allowed between 550,000 and 845,000 square feet of commercial space on the land, according to Ericksen.
The Quinn’s Junction Partnership has fought for nearly 20 years to get the “regional commercial zoning” restored, Ericksen said.
“We’ve tried to be amicable and respectful,” he said. “We put our lawsuits on standstill for years.”
But Thomas said that there has never been a regional commercial zone on the Quinn’s Junction land.
“The ombudsman’s arbitrator ruled that [Quinn’s Junction Partnership] has had ample ability to build a wide variety of uses on its property, but failed to make any application to do so,” Thomas said. “In sum, [Quinn’s Junction Partnership] wanted 300,000 square feet of high density commercial uses and would not settle for anything less.”
Thomas said county officials are confident in their legal position.
Both sides claimed their reputations have been smeared.
“Summit County has encouraged [Quinn’s Junction Partnership] over many years to file an application for development consistent with its codes, but [Quinn’s Junction Partnership] has refused; instead, vilifying county officials in the press, in court papers, and to the Legislature,” Thomas said.
However, Ericksen said it is Quinn’s Junction Partnership that has been unfairly criticized because Ralph Merrill, a former owner of the land in question, was recently convicted in a federal fraud case.
Merrill sold his interest in the property several years ago, according to Ericksen.
But Merrill was still signing documents as the manager of Quinn’s Junction Partnership in September 2008, Thomas said.
“Summit County has received no documentary evidence from [Quinn’s Junction Partnership] that there has ever been a change in ownership,” according to Thomas.
County officials said zoning on the land could allow the Quinn’s Junction Partnership to build about 85,000 square feet on the property.