The Summit County Council met with Congressman John Curtis on Monday where important local issues such as the proposed Dakota Pacific Real Estate development, the rising cost of childcare and the possibility of a second Winter Games were discussed.
The meeting this week was the second with Congressional representatives after staffers from Rep. Blake Moore’s office visited Summit County last Wednesday. That gathering was not publicly noticed though a quorum of the County Council was present, an error that Chair Roger Armstrong acknowledged during the regular meeting that afternoon.
Monday’s meeting was properly announced, and officials seemingly shared a similar orientation about Summit County residents’ top concerns as well as opportunities for future partnerships between the local and federal governments.
Curtis, a Republican who was challenged by former County Councilor Glenn Wright in the 3rd Congressional District, which includes Park City and other parts of Summit County, sad he wanted to meet with County Courthouse officials to build better working relationships.
The sentiment appeared to be welcome among the all-Democrat County Council, with Armstrong noting the recent end of a particularly tough legislative session for the county.
He provided Curtis background on the passage of Senate Bill 84, which he said takes away local land use control for the benefit of a single developer, Dakota Pacific, as well as House Bill 462 from the 2022 legislative session and a bill that allowed Hideout to briefly annex land near Richardson Flat the session before that.
While state officials such as Gov. Spencer Cox have claimed Summit County doesn’t like housing, Armstrong said the county has made great strides to provide more accommodations for the local workforce without compromising on smart growth.
Cox during a visit to Park City High School earlier this month suggested that building more housing would naturally cause rent to decrease. When asked whether tha would still work in an area like Park City where there is such high demand, including one report of an apartment waitlist exceeding 1,000 people, Cox told The Park Record it’s “simple economics.”
“When you have demand far outpacing the supply, we’re just going to see prices continue to go up,” he said. “Our hope is that we will see more affordable housing, not just here, but all across the state, which will help alleviate some of that pressure here as well.”
But the County Council on Monday said the issue is more nuanced than just increasing the housing stock.
County Councilor Malena Stevens said Summit County needs to continue focusing on creating more deed-restricted housing because of the community’s high area median income (AMI) and the average home price. Developments that restrict units to 80% AMI are reserved for people making around $105,000. Such a model isn’t efficient for the local community, County Councilor Canice Harte said, which is why state officials need to work ith the county to tackle the problem.
“Building housing, unless it’s affordable, isn’t going to help with any of our issues,” Stevens said.
County Councillor Chris Robinson agreed. He indicated that officials need to propose solutions beyond building.
Armstrong also noted the negative impact nightly rentals have had on the housing supply as well as the character of different neighborhoods, and the challenges the County Courthouse has faced in monitoring the short-term units without much help from the state.
“It’s hollowing out our neighborhoods. It’s making it so we don’t have a community anymore. It’s now just hotels and quasi-hotels scattered throughout,” he said, emphasizing the need for local control.
The chair of the County Council added that people don’t travel to Utah, or Park City, to see rooftops or shopping centers. Visitors come to the region to see wildlife and to recreate, Armstrong said, which is a vital part of the local economy – and should be preserved.
The congessman acknowledged that he didn’t have a “perfect answer,” but as a former mayor, he sympathized with the struggles of growth and traffic that are impacting the community’s quality of life.
Curtis applauded Summit County’s conservation work, including the purchase of an 834-acre farm in the Kamas Meadow for open space, and efforts to improve the resiliency of the Weber Watershed, an important water source for Park City and communities downstream.
Rep. Moore last year helped secure $1 million for the project, which will aid in creating a fund for fuel reduction treatments to support the watershed in the event of a severe wildfire.
Deputy County Manager Janna Young also noted the possibility of the creation of a biomass facility that could turn materials that contribute to dangerous wildfires, such as dead trees and underbrush, into biochar or fuel. She asked Curtis about federal support for such work.
Curtis was supportive of a biomass facility. He said he was willing to champion he issue at the federal level and that he wants Utah to become more involved in the industry. He welcomed an invitation to tour the Weber Watershed site.
Congressman John Curtis, left, met with members of the Summit County Council at the Summit County Health Department on Monday. Officials strived to improve working relationships and discussed top concerns among local residents.
Toria Barnhart/Park Record
The County Council and the congressman also discussed regional issues across the Wasatch Back, such as traffic and failing infrastructure, that impact daily life for residents.
Curtis asked the County Council their stance on the possibility of the state hosting another Winter Games, which he characterized as a “mixed blessing.” Local officials agreed, saying they hope a second Olympics will promote long-term good rather than harm.
It’s possible another Winter Games could exacerbate existing problems in the county. That means those issues must first be addressed before officials ae prepared to deliver another world-class event, Stevens said. Armstrong also added that there isn’t likely to be any new construction, which means the county can’t transition athlete accommodation to workforce housing after the Olympics are over. Robinson said the county is collaborating with the community to ensure everyone is happy with either outcome.
Officials also discussed the American Rescue Plan Act, which provided $39 billion in childcare relief funding that is slated to end in September. The loss of funding, in part, led PC Tots to increase its tuition from around $1,000 to more than $2,000 a child. The doubled cost is expected to create challenges for local families as the Park City area is already in a childcare desert.
Curtis expected the issue to start becoming more common across the state and nationally as federal funding provided a bandage for a problem that existed before the coronavirus pandemic, though he said he wasn’t aware of anything that’s currently been propsed as a solution.
Armstrong suggested the community’s largest employers, from Park City Mountain and Deer Valley Resort to Intermountain Health, should have a role in solving the problem – whether it’s creating more affordable housing for their employees, helping to subsidize child care tuition, or putting more resources on site.
“Someone has to pay for it … I typically look back at a lot of these things, including affordable housing, and say ‘Where are you, Vail?’” he said, referring to the resort company.
The roughly hour-long discussion was well received on both sides, with officials looking forward to the opportunity for more collaboration in the future.
“As a member of Congress, I’m very well aware that not everything I do is perfectly in tune with what you would have me do or how you would have me vote. But from the beginning, you all have been very accepting of who I am. Rather than focusing on the votes that you wouldn’t like, you’ve focused on the votes that you’ve liked nd that makes it easy for me to come,” Curtis said.
He continued, “You can imagine coming into a setting where all I’m hearing about are the things you don’t like about me, because we could spend a whole day on that.”
