Incorporate, secede from County debate
Incorporate, some in the Basin argue
They claim there would be benefits if a new municipality was formed on the West Side
Printed on Front Page and Page A-2. Posted: 02/20/2013 PM MST
An offhand comment by a county resident [Tom Clyde] at a recent Summit County Council meeting has stirred up an issue that hasn’t been discussed in several years – whether the densely populated West Summit County Basin would be better off operating as a city rather than as an unincorporated region of the county.
Woodland resident Tom Clyde suggested that the county should take a fresh look at the possible merits of incorporating the Basin and council member [county resident] Claudia McMullin said she supported studying the idea.
[In 2010 Summit County population was 36,324. Population in 2012 dropped to: 35,469
In 2010 Summit County Basin 84098 zip code population was 15,391;
the 2010 Summit County Park City 84060 zip code population was 7,558;
the 2012 Park City School District, including 84060 and 84098 zip codes is 4,529, the largest portion resides in the Basin.]
But any movement in that direction would have to be initiated by the residents, according to County Chief Deputy Attorney Dave Thomas. In the meantime, citizens have begun talking about the possible pros and cons of the concept.
Currently municipal services in the Basin are provided by a network of Special Service Districts and county government. “It’s not working that this area is being severally taken care of by the county,” resident Lucy Archer said. “In Silver Springs residents have to pay for, or do the work themselves, to keep drainage ditches clear, to maintain street lighting, to maintain neighborhood parks and water features, etc. There are maintenance and upkeep activities the county government does not pay for. If we incorporate we will at least have local hands on the purse strings and on how we’re going to take care of our parks, trails, recreational amenities, open space, roads, shopping districts and community infrastructure, as the need occurs, and that is relevant to the Basin property owners and taxpayers.” [There will also be representation by Basin residents rather than by a county council of out-of-our area residents who hold agendas different from those of the Basin property owners. Agendas that benefit other county cities including Park City who has on numerous occasions discussed our Basin as “a view corridor” for their interests.]
“There’s a lot of frustration with the county government and particularly the Planning Department and the County Council,” Hague said. “So I know of people who are looking into the possibility of forming a separate government and incorporating as a city. We would be seceding from the county government.”
Silver Springs resident Chris Hague referred to the incorporation as a “secession” from the county. [Secession is a fundamental American principal. It lends restraint to government and allows property owners a closer participation. Many of us have been taught and have repeated the Pledge of Allegiance that we have a republic that is “indivisible,” let’s not confuse national cohesion with divisibility for growth. If we consider the national fiscal deficits we can understand that local management is better than distant. The largest percentage of the residents in Summit County live in the Basin. Growing pains necessitate a separation. We watch as our children grow and marry and leave their parents home to build their own family. So it is with our affiliation with county governance, we have outgrown their tutelage.]
The county government “rules” the Snyderville Basin and collects its taxes, Hague said. “If the Snyderville Basin seceded from the county and formed its own government, it would have its own tax base,” he said. “Under Utah law, a county cannot collect the Resort city sales tax,” he said. “So we’re not collecting any revenue from Canyons Resort, which is one of the biggest resorts in the country, the county is losing that tax revenue.” he explained. “So if the Basin incorporated as a city and included Canyons Resort, the tax would be a significant tax revenue stream for a city,” he added.
“So if you couple the tax base with the concerns of where the county has been going for the past few years, people begin looking at incorporating,” Hague said.
If Snyderville Basin becomes “Moose Valley” the incorporated city boundaries would be determined in the petition, which is required to initiate the incorporation process. The boundaries would be whatever the petition to incorporate said they were,” Thomas said, “They would have to come in with a plat map with the proposed boundaries of the proposed city. Ultimately, it’s whatever is in the petition that governs what the boundaries are.” “A good city boundary would be the whole of the 84098 zip code,” adds Lucy Archer.
Archer hopes that if the Basin becomes incorporated, it will do away with the need for homeowners associations (HOAs). “If we have an incorporated city that’s already going to take care of important neighborhood maintenance issues, then why would property owners need HOAs as a second head of the governing snake, especially if a majority of the property owner residents don’t want HOAs?” she asked. “The reason we’ve been tied into having an HOA in our community subdivisions is because the county says someone has to take care of drainage systems, streetlights, parks, etc, because ‘we’re not going to do it’.”
As one of the founding members of the Silver Springs HOA 31 years ago, Archer said she has watched HOAs become a “bad deal” for residents. Subdivision contractors established the use HOAs to maintain rules they felt would make their subdivisions more attractive and homogeneous while they built and sold houses and lots. After all the properties are out of the contractor’s books the contractor departs, leaving a set of bylaws and conditions of covenants, restrictions, and rules that over the years become outdated and unwarranted, enforced by property owner board members with little or no management experience and/or lacking fair-minded qualities.
“There are a lot of limitations on property owner’s liberty to use their property in a manner conducive to their needs and personal interests.,” she said. “If you are an independent person who wants to plant a big garden and to raise chickens, forget it. Or if you are a veteran who would like to raise the American flag every day, forget it, because there are HOAs who have rules against this freedom. You can’t even park your car in your driveway overnight. You cannot install colonial or prairie style windows, or paint your house your favorite color. So there are all these rules plus all the politics of cliques and marionettes that run the HOA boards without regard to what is written in the Bylaws to monitor their actions.”
“Archer said it’s usually a small handful of people because, “any number of Members in good standing present at such subsequent meeting, in person or by Proxy’ shall constitute a quorum” then board members manipulate attendance and therefore end up making the rules for the neighborhood without property owner majority consent.”
“I just think HOAs as now constituted are a really ineffective way to to sustain a neighborhood.” she said. “In our neighborhood, the HOA or especially the Master HOA, certainly aren’t working, they do not represent the interests or desires of the 514 properties here, the MHOA represents approximately 59 owners . I’ve also talked to people in town and I feel the consensus is that property owners are disenchanted with their respective HOAs. We realize that what controls your neighborhood also controls you. Not a free patriot’s ideal.”
Whenever the idea of incorporating the Basin has been considered in the past, the name “Snyderville” (and this time even worse “Snyderville City”) has not had local community support, Coalville government is the sole entity making use of that moniker to describe our valley neighborhoods. Archer said she would prefer another name be used. A contest could be run for the top five submissions then they could be placed on the next county election ballot. “I am very adamant about not using “Snyderville” as our new city name. Some of our family predecessors with the surname Snyder were some of the original founders of areas in Summit County but so were others like the Kimballs whose name is identified with Kimball Junction. When you look in the various phone books or business directories you will note that not a single business uses the name “Snyderville”.
Instead, Archer suggests the name “Moose Valley,” because it represents local nature, wildlife, a boreal habitat, outdoor life, environmental sensitivity, and the extant four-legged residents who make regular visits to most of the neighborhoods in our valley basin.
Either way, Archer said that if incorporation is considered she hopes the county will seek resident participation in the study process. “I know sometimes they don’t want a lot of participation because they can get a lot of opinions and they would just rather do it their way, ” she said. “But I think resident participation will make for a more cohesive and stronger city. A lot of people in this area feel left out of processes. People want to be involved even if they are busy working, commuting, raising families, and taking care of their homes; resident tax payers want to feel like their officials want them involved, that they are honestly needed and respected for their contributions.”
When Carolyn Kingsley called me on Monday, February 18, 2013 to ask me whether I would support the incorporation of the Basin into the largest city in Summit County, Utah, I told her I definitely would support this change if the County Council would support homeowners in the dissolution of their respective homeowners associations if the homeowners requested that the HOA in their neighborhood would be dissolved. Property owners do not need two sets of rule makers.
I also listed experiences I had as Regional Boy Scout Commissioner, election judge and voting registration agent for seventeen years, co-founder and head librarian of the Summit County Library branch on Rasmussen Road, real estate broker, and the Crew Leader for the 2010 Federal Census in Summit County. In all these positions there has always been a very palpable and identifiable separation between the ideologies and interests of the residents on either side of Summit County. The county seat in Coalville has employed mostly East Summit County employees who serve predominantly the needs of that area leaving the West Summit County area to beg and plead for equitable representation in services. This posturing by Coalville government was particularly evident in the start up, governing, growth and funding of the Basin Summit County Library. The Library should have been named for library founder as the Lou Jean Nelson Library, instead the Kimball Junction building was named after Sheldon Richins a East County resident and County Commissioner who opposed the Library and the erection of the building throughout his term. That is a story covered on other pages of this website, pages I am considering expanding.
Summit County has been adamantly divided since before our family moved here in 1982. There is no judgement as to which side is right or which interests are more beneficial, there is simply the cold, hard facts that the population of “Moose Valley” would be better served with a local government and access to leaders who would look after the local residents and their purse strings without the reticence of government leaders with a very different set of ideas and interests.
