As the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office allows communities such as Wasatch Highlands to be considered for incorporation, the Wasatch County Council is debating how to explain the negative impacts that bills allowing preliminary municipalities have on local governments.
This week, the County Council discussed how to explain to state legislators that appealing or amending the related bills may be in everyone’s best interest. Though Wasatch County Manager Dustin Grabau said he believes the state “is unashamedly pro-growth.”
Grabau explained that he’s heard Gov. Spencer Cox be “very vocal” about the need for more housing in Utah. Senate Bill 258, passed in 2024, probably stems from wanting to fuel that growth, Grabau said. The law allows up to three landowners in unincorporated areas to apply for a preliminary municipality in “rural” counties and gives all the power and duties of a town, including zoning and land use decisions.
“I think they view this (bill) as one of the tools that they have created to facilitate additional growth,” Grabau said. “I think, as counties, our natural state, at least for us, is one of preservation. We’ve established what we think is appropriate, and we aren’t very interested in making changes to that.”
There are six steps a preliminary municipality goes through to become a municipality. First is the application process. Then there’s a third-party feasibility study and a public hearing with the consultants hosted by the Lt. Governor’s office.
The state feasibility study examines the tax base, five-year cost, revenue projects, risk and opportunities, analysis of new revenue sources and the fiscal impacts of the preliminary municipality.
“The study has no, I think, objective criteria or threshold other than they just have to prove financial feasibility,” Grabau said. “They do reach out to entities to get their input on that.”
Some councilors, like interim County Councilor Mike Murphy, said some stipulations of the law — like the requirement for affordable housing — are laughable.
Grabau explained that preliminary municipalities are required to have at least 10% affordable units classified by 80% area median income. The AMI for a family of four in Wasatch County is $136,200. Approximately 80% AMI would be $108,960.
“Everyone in this room and county knows that’s a joke,” Murphy said.
County Councilor Colleen Bonner said she would like to see water and sewer infrastructure included in the feasibility study, not to mention studies on traffic and fire safety access.
“To try and get roads and all the infrastructure and everything in that ought to be part of the feasibility study, what those costs for water, roads are,” Bonner said.
Grabau said one of the most compelling arguments the county has for the state Legislature is that there is no “context sensitivity” to the problem.
“The properties that we’re talking about are very mountainous, like important watersheds. The idea that you’re going to build a town on the side of a mountain, this bill doesn’t contemplate (that),” Grabau said. “I think that’s something that maybe a site visit, bringing legislators to some of these properties, and say, ‘Is this what you had in mind? Is this a spot for a town?’”
He said it would be clear, almost immediately, that the math does not add up.
County Councilor Luke Searle said it’s important to flag clear problems for legislators to paint a clear picture of the situation. He said the county would be willing to work toward affordable housing in other ways.
“I think that we’ve tried to do our best to address this in a somewhat reasonable kind of way, but still are not going to deny that there are huge factors that are here that have to be addressed before really anything can happen,” Searle said. “Or that we’re not willing to necessarily do this under the guise of affordable housing.”
Though County Councilor Spencer Park argued that legislators are “getting hit with data centers” and may not have time or means to address Wasatch County’s preliminary municipality problem, the County Council agreed that draft legislation can be presented to relevant parties. Or, at least, that a conversation with legislators can be had.
“Affordable housing looks different in the Wasatch Back than it does everywhere else,” Searle said. “So, trying to give this one-size-fits-all doesn’t work.”
Searle said, along with conversations with legislators, there needs to be further conversations with the Wasatch County community.
“We need to have a conversation in the coming months on how to engage the public to say, ‘This is how we’re addressing this issue in our county,’” Searle said.
In February, Grabau said the 2024 state law poses a problem if planning in Wasatch County becomes somewhat unpredictable. One to three property owners can have a “dramatic shift” in planned demands on infrastructure, Grabau said.
Those infrastructure demands include water, sewer and essential public safety services.
Such is the case with Wasatch Highlands — a proposed preliminary municipality the Lt. Governor’s office is considering — sponsored by Greg Whitehead, a partner with Pleasant Grove-based Philo Ventures.
The Wasatch Highlands proposal includes 700 homes, a hotel, “glamping” and retail development projects on a 2,700-acre parcel of land east of Heber City. In February, Grabau discussed the slew of challenges such proposals present.
Wasatch Highlands’ project boundary encompasses acreage on the northeast corner of Heber City limits. It is adjacent to the Red Ledges neighborhood. If the proposed preliminary municipality is fully incorporated, Grabau said, there will be traffic and infrastructure hurdles that are already challenging issues in the area.
Unless state code changes, the “pilot program” for preliminary municipalities outlined in the 2024 Utah State Senate bill expires in 2031.
Grabau said conversations with the County Council on the subject will resurface in the coming months. Right now, the Wasatch Highlands project is in the feasibility study phase of the incorporation process. There are no public hearings set for Wasatch Highlands ahead of the finalization of that study.