“The mission of the General Plan is to preserve natural open space and vistas, prevent urban and suburban sprawl, and promote the mountain resort community. This will be accomplished through well managed growth that clusters densities, protects natural flora and wildlife, and supports recreation. The result will be a community and economy that are diverse, cohesive, and sustainable.”
-Snyderville Basin Planning Commission
The paragraph may read like an advertisement for Summit County, but the proposed mission statement by the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission will determine what future developments are allowed in the Basin and what they will look like.
Each sentence of the new Snyderville Basin General Plan, which lays out detailed development guidelines, will be crafted from the mission statement. That is why the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission members are urging residents to give their input on the proposed mission statement at a public hearing on Tuesday.
Planning Commission Chair Colin DeFord said that while the topic of mission statements and general plans can seem “boring,” this is the public’s chance to discourage future developments that they think go against everything residents love about the area.
“If this paragraph really misses the mark of what Basin residents think is important, then this is the time we need to hear about it,” DeFord said. “We want anyone who reads the mission statement to be able to know exactly what the Snyderville Basin is about.”
DeFord added that while the statement may seem optimistic, it encompasses everything that residents have said matters most.
“Open space is in the first sentence. That isn’t a coincidence. It is because that is what residents have said matters the most,” he said. “The priority for the Commission is that we listen to the community because that is who this will affect for a very long time. This is the residents’ chance to complain and give their input, not a few years from now when the developer is in front of us after following the General Plan.”
DeFord said the old mission statement was very wordy and did not make clear what key attributes had to be included in developments such as preventing sprawl, and clustering density.
Planning Commissioner Annette Velarde said the mission statement is seen as a recommendation, but it determines how the general code is enforced.
“It seems like this is just a paragraph but it is extremely important,” she said. “We took months to meet with each neighborhood and determine what they found important and then tried to squeeze that into a few sentences. The part about clustering density, that is what we did to Redstone and Boyer, which is why we have the Swaner Nature Preserve and PRI open space.”
Velarde said she has heard some positive feedback about the statement but not enough and wants to know if the public thinks there is any detail that should be changed.
“It isn’t the Commission’s mission statement, it is the public’s,” she said. “Right now it is only a draft to be changed by the public. After having a lot of developments come before us that were strongly opposed by the community, we are hyper-aware of doing it right this time around.”
The Planning Commission wants to have the first phase of the new General Plan completed by December and expects to have the new General Plan completed next fall.
The public hearing on the proposed Snyderville Basin Mission Statement will be held at 6 p.m. on Aug. 14 at the Sheldon Richins Building.