We as a community are facing a County Council election that has major ramifications for the future of Summit County. In the race between Thomas Cooke and Megan McKenna for County Council seat C primary, the choice could not be clearer.
If you are against Dakota Pacific then you have to vote for Thomas Cooke. Developers have long threatened our community and when we collectively took a stand against Dakota Pacific and as of now have stopped them dead in their tracks.
Thomas Cooke voted against this project four years ago as a member of the Planning Commission and he continues the fight against exploitive and dangerous developers like Dakota Pacific. There is no one in this race who understands more about the development process and the code that guides the county on approving projects.
Thomas has been there for the last eight years in the Planning Commission protecting the county against developers that want to build at any cost to the community. Who has more experience in the county than a planning commissioner who sees every project before it comes before the County Council? Certainly not Megan Mckenna.
I believe Megan supports affordable housing at an unreasonable cost to the community. She was thanked publicly by Mark Stanworth, the CEO of Dakota Pacific, for her courage in support of their project (March 9, 2023, at the Ecker Hill public comment meeting).
What qualifications does Megan have to be on the County Council? She was a science teacher and cares deeply for the community, and she is the housing advocate for the Mountainlands Community Housing Trust. Did you notice that Bob Richers, board president of Mountainlands, recently posted a letter in the Park Record endorsing Thomas Cooke?
It would appear that Megan has difficulty seeing the forest for the trees and therefore she may vote to approve projects that have any affordable housing content without weighing the impact of the rest of the project on our community.
The facts are that there is no comparison between Thomas and Megan in this race. You have a choice between a candidate that has an on-the-record history of being opposed to Dakota Pacific, and you have a candidate that is being thanked by the CEO of Dakota Pacific.
The composition of the County Council right now is split on Dakota Pacific and voting for Megan will create a voting block that would allow developers like Dakota Pacific to get approval to build monstrosities in our community that only benefit the shareholders of the developer.
We as a community have delayed and created an important discussion around whether developers like Dakota Pacific that wave a tiny flag of affordable housing should be allowed to build. I believe a vote for Megan is a vote for developers like Dakota Pacific. Please join me in voting for Thomas Cooke. It’s about our future as a small mountain town.
Gary Peacock
Park City