Developers in the Snyderville Basin now have a new process to obtain a rezone after the Summit County Council narrowly passed an ordinance removing the requirement that “construction-level drawings” must be included alongside an application.
The Snyderville Basin is largely zoned for low-density neighborhoods, which means developers need to request permission to build apartment complexes, mixed-use buildings or other large-scale projects.
But Community Development Director Peter Barnes has repeatedly said the requirement to include engineered plans in an application prevents the public from learning about a project early enough to provide meaningful input. He speculated that developers are less likely to change site plans based on community feedback when they’ve already spent time and money consulting with engineers and architects.
The requirement to include construction-level drawings also burdens county staff, who need to review and sign off on pieces of the project each time the County Council or Planning Department requests a modification, Barnes said.
The ordinance, which the County Council passed on Wednesday, changes the process and mandates developers submit a “concept development plan” along with a rezone application. Barnes explained that the plan includes information on density, land use, open space and traffic but without engineering schematics.
“The object of this exercise is to adjust the order of events in which information is provided in a rezoning application,” he said. “All the information that will be required prior to receiving any kind of development permit, building permit, before anything happens, before a shovel goes in the ground, all the normal and usual information will be provided.”
In addition to easing the burden on county staff and developers, Barnes said he hoped the process would increase transparency and offer residents a chance to get involved in projects earlier, which is more effective in encouraging changes in a proposal.
“It makes for a more predictable, more efficient methodology for all concerned,” he said. “That’s the sole reason why we’re here.”
The Planning Department initially suggested a “pre-application public hearing” to give community members an opportunity to hear about a project and submit comments before the request is officially sent to the county.
However, Chief Civil Deputy David Thomas said the county can’t require a public hearing before an application is submitted. He said the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission could hold a work session and invite public input, but the county could not force developers to engage in a hearing without a valid application.
County Council Vice Chair Roger Armstrong questioned the ordinance’s benefits without the ability to hold pre-application hearings. He said he was under the impression that expanding the public’s opportunities to comment on a proposed project was the legislation’s key selling point.
“Zoning is, and should be, one of the hardest things we do,” Armstrong said. “It is the vision of what this community should look like based on the people who elected us to be here. … Disturbing that should be a robust and very difficult process.”
Armstrong said he opposed the ordinance because he was concerned it would reduce the County Council’s oversight of rezone requests. Specifically, details like negotiations over community benefits and affordable housing are often left until the end of the development process, and Armstrong worried the County Council would not have the same level of involvement in ironing out those details if the ordinance were adopted.
“The time-saving pieces of this are some of the pieces that could affect traffic. It could affect a variety of other things that we’re not seeing,” Armstrong said. “We’re not necessarily getting the bigger picture. … This is an incomplete data set for us to make the decision.”
But County Councilor Chris Robinson said the County Council could still include granular details in a development agreement, which would be required for any property seeking a rezone. He also pushed back against Armstrong’s statements questioning whether the ordinance would create “unintended consequences” for Summit County, such as unwanted state involvement in local land use matters.
“(The current process) leaves (developers) hanging, and it exposes us, I think, to unintended consequences where reputationally and otherwise we get a bad rap for being impossible to deal with and that we’re not straightforward,” Robinson said.
Robinson, whose company owns and manages more than 1 million acres in the Mountain West, added that other counties in Utah already have a similar process to the proposed ordinance.
He made a motion to approve the new rezone process, which passed in a 3-2 vote. Robinson and county councilors Tonja Hanson and Megan McKenna voted in favor of the ordinance, while Armstrong and County Council Chair Canice Harte opposed it.