In nearly 10 years, Deer Valley will have completed doubling its terrain, the 2034 Winter Olympics will have come and passed, and the Military Installation Development Authority will be nearing completion of the 6,200 units currently planned for development.
The Wasatch County Council discussed the development schedule and impact of those thousands of units Wednesday.
As of this week, overall development is 22% complete.
Wasatch County’s MIDA coordinator, Richard Breitenbeker, explained how the homes, townhomes, hotels and condos will be spread across six zones in the Jordanelle Basin. In response to Breitenbeker’s comment that the sheer number of units might draw public attention, Wasatch County Manager Dustin Grabau said that the number did not come strictly from MIDA.
“These numbers are not a creation of MIDA. The county played a large role in the start and much through this process. While MIDA has a role now, this all started with a county initiative and is maybe matching the county’s original intent,” Grabau said.
Numbers stand today at 196 homes, 861 townhomes or condos, 230 hotel room units and 143 hotel condos, which are privately owned but attached to a hotel. The build-out date is less certain but sure to be after 2035. By then there will be 1,267 homes, 3,240 townhomes or condos, 1,358 hotel room units and 314 hotel condos. While ERUs are used as a common standard of measurement, Breitenbeker broke down the numbers in actual residential unit counting.
“I think those numbers are the biggest reason that we’re going to pull so much public interest in these slides because people are interested in knowing what the end goal is,” Breitenbeker said. “It is an end goal that is still some ways away, but it’s coming much more rapidly here and much more predictably here than it will be in other places that have similar end games.”
According to Breitenbeker, most of the hotel development is in the core of Deer Valley’s East Village. That’s zone 4 and 5. Areas like zone 1 — currently entirely residential and including all SkyRidge developments — will see a small sliver of hotel development surrounding single-family homes, townhomes and condos.
“Each zone has a unique character and timeline,” Breitenbeker said.
The MIDA report presented Wednesday shows the growth strategy outlined in a “front-loaded window,” where nearly 95% of development will occur somewhere before the county’s 175th anniversary but after the 2034 Olympic Games. While just over 4,500 units are designated for homes, townhomes and condos, Breitenbeker said that the number of incorporated investments levels out the fiscal impact of developing residential areas.
“Every municipality of any kind knows that residential units don’t pay for themselves. That’s not a money making strategy for a city. People benefit extraordinarily from the amount of private investment that’s going into this area in a very short time span,” Breitenbeker said. “Once that money comes it has effects and we need to know what those effects will be, but it is a blessing as much as it is a curse.”