A public hearing on Summit County’s $ 50 million open space bond is scheduled for Wednesday

Summit County Council voted last month in favor of a $ 50 million open space bond in the November ballot and hopes to hear comments on the idea in a public hearing Wednesday night.

There is a history in Summit County of borrowing tens of millions of dollars to preserve land, but those efforts have been limited to Snyderville Basin and Park City. This is the first time such a question will be asked of all voters in the county, including those living on the more politically conservative East Side.

Wednesday’s hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. in Coalville, at the Ledges Event Center. Another hearing is scheduled for the following Wednesday at the Sheldon Richins County Services Building near Kimball Junction.

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Officials said the proceeds of this bond, if passed, would likely be used to a greater extent on the East Side than in the Snyderville Basin, largely to prevent the transformation of farmland into real estate development. .

Summit County Councilor Roger Armstrong said he was eager to hear what East Side residents think about the plan.

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“I think we can expect significant growth to occur perhaps sooner than expected in eastern Summit County, as we see landowners faced with the choice of selling their ranches to realize the economic equity that they have in these properties, “he said.” And that provides an additional tool that can help some of these families retain ownership of these ranches and farms while protecting these areas so that we can better cope. to the development that is probably to come in these areas. ”

Armstrong acknowledges that the $ 50 million price tag may shock some.

According to county documents, the primary residence tax increase of $ 650,000 in the first year of the bond’s impact would be $ 45 to $ 50.

He said the money would be used to raise funds from other groups, including state and federal agencies and nonprofits.

The money could be used to purchase open spaces and conservation easements, as well as to build recreational facilities and environmental and wildlife mitigation measures, according to a county report.

“The objective of the bond is the acquisition of land,” the report says.

The report says the council wants the ability to fund infrastructure such as trails that typically accompany open spaces.

Armstrong and other advisers identified open spaces in the Kamas Valley, including a significant range of grasslands known as Kamas Meadow, as well as stretches along the Weber River, as potential areas for protection.

The most expensive local land conservation bond, which Park City voters passed in 2018, was $ 48 million, the vast majority of which was used to finance City Hall’s acquisition of the Treasure land overlooking the old City. County councilors said they did not have a project of this magnitude in mind.

The proceeds of county bonds could be used to purchase conservation easements, a legal arrangement in which a landowner sells future development rights to their land. The landowner is usually allowed to continue to use the land as it had been used – to maintain farming operations, for example – but the agreements include provisions that the land will not be further developed.

Armstrong said such arrangements allow landowners to access the value of their land, which is otherwise more easily accessible by selling it to someone who could develop it, while still retaining the ability to live and live on it. keep it.

“If you’re a rancher and the choice is this, I can get 80% of the value of my property today, for example, with a conservation easement – which can be high or low – but 80% of my property. property today, and I can continue to operate my property so as not to have the same kind of (development) pressures, or I can sell my property 100% to developers and that changes fundamentally, potentially, the appearance and the character of the community. I’ve lived in: Ultimately that will be the decision of some of the people who may want to participate and make the properties available for preservation, ”Armstrong said.

He said the timing of the bond was appropriate given the rising land values ​​and development pressures fueled by the pandemic, but reiterated that it was not for the council to decide.

“Voters are going to tell us what they want,” he said. “It’s yes or no, it’s their decision.”