A letter to the editor from Trish Hedin, Grand County Commissioner
Recently, the county’s Planning and Zoning Department has been thrown into chaos after some commissioners demanded “urgent action” on new high density housing projects, as outlined by Commissioner Martinez’s recent opinion piece.
To fast track this process, at the Commission’s August 19 meeting, Commissioner Winfield sponsored an agenda item to add an additional liaison to the Planning Commission (even though all commissioners are invited to all planning commission meetings).
On the same agenda, there was another item without a sponsor that proposed replacing our Interim Zoning Administrator (Cristin Hofhine). There was no information included, and no new Interim Zoning Administrator named.
After several conversations, Commissioner Winfield told me these items were necessary because projects were not moving through Planning and Zoning promptly or in a timely manner.
At the meeting, Commissioners Winfield, Martinez, McCandless, and McCurdy voted to add a second Commission liaison and appointed Martinez. They pulled the agenda item to remove Ms. Hofhine with no explanation.
For years, the County Planning and Zoning Department has had difficulty retaining staff. And currently, the Department is in a precarious position, with only an engineer and Ms. Hofhine on staff.
Ms. Hofhine, the acting administrator, has done a phenomenal job moving applications forward, while at the same time meeting the demands of county administration and the commission to amend certain parts of the land use code.
One of the larger modifications came earlier this spring with amendments to the HDHO ordinance, prompted by two commissioners. Within that process, a percentage of deed-restricted housing for owner-occupancy was lost to our workforce due to negotiations at the Planning and County Commission levels.
In his opinion piece, Commissioner Martinez stated that his urgency around Land Use Code modifications comes from a concern that, “every month we delay making progress only widens our affordable housing gap.” Yet, with HDHO amendments he requested and pushed through, that gap was only broadened.
More recently, Commissioner Martinez approached Planning and Zoning with a proposal to overhaul the Multi-Family Residential zone. His proposal would provide multi-family dwellings of 45 units on any lot within the county over an acre, with no setbacks on buildings over three stories and reduce parking requirements to one per unit.
When this was presented to the Planning Commission, with modifications from Ms. Hofhine, the Planning Commission immediately pushed back as to the standards and intent of the amendment.
In Utah, these types of developments and densities are found only on the Wasatch Front and in Washington County (which is now facing significant water security and infrastructure challenges) – not in rural Utah. Do such densities have value? Absolutely; However, a comprehensive evaluation of the impacts and advantages of such density is needed by our Zoning Administrator, Planning Commission, County Commission, and community members.
Commissioner Martinez wants you to believe his MFR-45 is “time-sensitive.” It is not; the federal LIHTC (low-income housing tax credit) funding that Martinez refers to will continue to be available. Yet, if Commissioner Martinez is successful in fast-tracking his radical MFR-45 proposal, it will forever change the quality of life in Grand County.
Long range planning should not be rushed – or adopted piecemeal. The Commission agrees that our Land Use Code (LUC) is in desperate need of an overhaul. The Commission has already authorized $80,000 to hire an outside consultant to begin this process this year.
Commissioner Martinez’ MFR-45 proposal demonstrates why it would be beneficial for the Planning and County Commission to pause updates to our land use regulations until our consultants overhaul our LUC. A “piecemeal” approach only delays progress on the LUC update, risks an inferior product that is not cohesive with the rest of our land use code, and puts the county in jeopardy of litigation.
We are better than this. Instead of more rushed, sloppy action, I hope we work to stabilize the Planning Department while rewriting the Land Use Code in a holistic, systematic manner that incorporates extensive input from citizens and commissioners alike.
Trish Hedin,
Grand County Commissioner
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