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Lincoln Station On Summit County Council's Agenda Tonight

Summit County

The Summit County council has a light agenda for its Wednesday meeting. The major item is a public hearing, and possible decision, about a mixed-use project proposed for the Bitner frontage road.

The council meets at the Richins Services building. At 6:00 pm they will hold a hearing about Lincoln Station, a proposal for a four-acre parcel to the east of Bitner fire station.

The developer is asking to rezone the property, now Rural Residential, to allow a plan with 78 units and over 5,000 square feet of commercial.

The council discussed the plan last month and appointed a sub-committee, of council members Doug Clyde and Chris Robinson, to meet with the applicant.

A major issue here is the provision 2.3 of the Snyderville Code, which says that the county won’t create any new entitlements in the Basin, unless it can be shown that the project offers some compelling reason to approve it. County Manager Tom Fisher said this is the first real test for that provision.

“They have to make an argument in front of the planning commission and in front of the council that what they’re offering-- whether it be in public recreation amenities, affordable housing, other things that would benefit the area at large-- that (those are) a countervailing reason why a different kind of zoning would be allowed in that case.”

The project is offering more than the 20 percent in affordable housing as required by code.

We also asked Fisher if they county has a definite number of affordable units needed in the area.

“We’ve done studies around that they show different levels based on whether you’re talking about just different AMI’s in regards to affordable housing, or you start to include more of the middle-income work force that is still challenged by the cost of housing, and the cost of land in Summit County.” Fisher continued, “Over the past year there have been several projects that have gone through the process that equal probably around 900 to 1,000 units of possible affordable housing. Those include Silver Creek Village they include The Canyons, Discovery is about to break ground.”

In last month’s discussion about Lincoln Station, one council member asked if the project might become a bedroom site for people working in Salt Lake. We asked Fisher if they can prevent that.

“Get more limited, depending on the type of financing that a developer uses if they’re using federal tax credits, or other types of HUD programs it certainly puts a lot more limit on what we can require of the developer in regards to who can occupy those units. If they’re not using those types of programs, it gives us a lot more flexibility. For instance, in the area of Whole Foods, when we got the approximately 20 units above some of the commercial in the development. We were able to put some waterfall provisions on occupancy, that essentially gave preference to those who work on site or work within a very tight radius of that development.”

Finally, Fisher said he doesn’t know how much public input the project will attract on Wednesday.

“This project doesn’t have a lot of close residential neighbors it certainly has landownership neighbors, one of them being the Bitner Ranch. It’s hard to judge sometimes, when you don’t have close neighbors monitoring those things. Inevitably, any type of housing development project in the county seems to have good interest. So, I would expect there to be some comments.”

Known for getting all the facts right, as well as his distinctive sign-off, Rick covered Summit County meetings and issues for 35 years on KPCW. He now heads the Friday Film Review team.
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