The developers behind Cedar Crest Village, a new town proposed near Hoytsville, hope to receive a decision about the disputed project sometime this year, but it won’t come until at least the spring.
Summit County officials released a tentative schedule for the upcoming public meetings between the Eastern Summit County Planning Commission and representatives from Larry H. Miller Real Estate and Ivory Homes to discuss the project. The first one is scheduled on Thursday.
The discussion this week will be a continuation of public hearings held in the fall. Other meetings will be held at 6 p.m. each month on Thursdays at the Ledges Center in Coalville through May 16. No final action is scheduled for the last meeting.
Cedar Crest is the first project proposed in the village overlay approved by the County Council in 2018. The zone is meant to improve planning flexibility and incentivize cooperation in unincorporated communities.
Developers have been working on the application since 2019, including with the Cedar Crest Village Overlay committee, which forwarded a positive recommendation to the Planning Commission last September.
“A major objective of the planning work is to maintain the existing rural character and heritage of Hoytsville,” the project website states. “All while ensuring the goals of local landowners and communities are met to guide and manage the inevitable growth and development in the area. Cedar Crest Village will provide a range of housing opportunities, both in terms of housing types and affordability for a range of people from young adults and families to seniors.”
The proposed master-planned community would be a multi-phase, mixed-use development built out over several decades. Larry H. Miller Real Estate and Ivory Homes tout a vision-oriented approach, housing opportunities and open space as public benefits.
The current plan calls for building more than 4,000 units on the 1,085 acres within the Cedar Crest zone with a mix of housing types. Larry H. Miller holds about 792 acres, which could carry 3,100 units if a base density of four units per acre is approved.
However, there would be different regions with density restrictions in the project area. The village center might have a density of 25 units, while a neighborhood could have six units.
The developers expect home values to be between $390,000 and $1.2 million with living options ranging from stacked apartments to single-family homes. The average home in Hoytsville is valued at around $961,000, according to their data.
Planning commissioners and community members previously raised concern that the cost may still be too expensive for essential workers, such as teachers, making around $60,000 a year.
Larry H. Miller and Ivory Homes also met with the North Summit School District Board of Education last week to present the plan and hear feedback. The developers were open to partnering with the school district or other organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity or Mountainlands Community Housing Trust, on specific projects to help bring the cost down.
East Side residents have spoken out about the size of the project, too. Several people have said Cedar Crest would make the small, rural town of 300 homes unrecognizable.
“Nothing is missing (from Hoytsville), except what will be the cows and water in the river if this happens. With this development plus the addition of the Wolhali project on the west side of Echo, there is nothing RURAL about what is happening in this valley,” said a Jan. 12 comment left by Monty CS on the project’s public discussion board.
Developers plan to bring the project land use and development agreement to the Planning Commission sometime this year. The Planning Commission would then issue a recommendation to the County Council on the Cedar Crest proposal, which is being reviewed as a rezone and master-planned development. The County Council has the final authority to make a decision on the village overlay zone plan as well as the draft zoning districts.
The public meetings are scheduled in person and via Zoom for Jan. 18, Feb. 15, March 21, April 18 and May 16 and will be held in the multipurpose room at 202 E. Park Road. Agendas and staff reports will be published online before the meeting date. Additional information is available at summitcounty.org/cedarcrest.