The CORE program may be eliminated as Summit County looks to adopt a Master Plan Development system similar to Park City’s for all major developments in the Snyderville Basin.
The CORE and Specially Planned Area programs the county uses to allow a development to increase its density based on community benefits has presented problems for developers and planners since 2008.
“The Master Plan Development’s (MPD) is more clear as far as allowed uses and allowable density,” said Summit County Planner Kimber Gabryszak. “Right now our systems are vague and not black and white about what community benefits give additional density.”
The MPD system will have a set density for developments and then allow them to increase the density by a small percent based on clear community benefits according to Gabryszak. Currently, Specially Planned Areas can increase the density in a town center from one unit per 20 acres up to five units per one acre.
“Some of our zones have no set density. With the MPD we could define density ahead of time and then allow a limited increase for workforce housing or open space,” said Gabryszak.
The CORE program, meant to encourage developers to build workforce housing in exchange for additional density allotments, has proven unsuccessful. Only two CORE developments have been through the system, neither successfully. Most recently, the CORE Discovery development was put on hold after developer Glen Lent spent two years trying to make it through the CORE planning process.
With the county’s current track record it is going to be hard from them to offer incentives to developers no matter what the code is, Lent explained. “If the county is not willing to hold up their end of the bargain on the existing development code then a new one won’t make a difference.”
“Changing the CORE is necessary because it hasn’t worked. We haven’t successfully put a project through it,” said Snyderville Basin Planning Commission Chair Julie Hooker. “The CORE originated at a different time economically. Things in Park City were at their peak.”
With the MPD, the county would not need a stand-alone housing program such as the CORE and would be meeting its legal requirement, according to Gabryszak.
“We spoke with developers who asked us why we didn’t have a MPD all along,” she said.
Hooker said planners have learned a lot from the CORE and are now moving forward with something better suited to the community.
“My main priority right now is to get a true and accurate needs assessment that reflects the pent-up demand for workforce housing,” said Hooker.
The county planners started working on the language for a new MPD system according to Gabryszak. The new plan will then go back to the planning commission for a work session around November.