The Summit County Council has delayed a vote to create bylaws for the county’s new housing authority for a second time. The bylaws will determine how the housing authority is governed and allow councilors to start appointing commissioners.
Economic Development and Housing Director Jeff Jones presented a resolution to establish the bylaws on Wednesday following feedback from the County Council in a lengthy discussion last week.
Per the County Council’s direction, Jones amended the resolution to include term limits and a provision that the bylaws could not be modified without approval from the county councilors.
It also established a seven-person commission with two members from the County Council, one resident living in deed-restricted affordable housing, one at-large member and three members who live within the jurisdictional boundaries of the county’s three school districts — one for Park City School District, one for North Summit and one for South Summit.
County Councilor Roger Armstrong immediately expressed his apprehension about approving the resolution without further discussion, especially because county councilors Canice Harte and Chris Robinson were unable to attend this week’s meeting in person.
“I have some concerns, and we talked about this a bit last time, that creating this housing authority and launching it before we have that opportunity to have that guided discussion … would be a mistake,” Armstrong said. “I think we need to figure out what our strategies for housing are and what we would like to see done and try to articulate some goals that we want to try to accomplish over some period of time, whatever that is.”
Armstrong added he was nervous about the housing authority remaining independent from the County Council and not being held accountable by voters. He said he envisioned a possible scenario in which the state Legislature could impose rules and requirements on the housing authority to accomplish its own goals in opposition to the County Council’s position, mentioning the controversial deal with Dakota Pacific Real Estate as an example.
“The governor wants 35,000 houses [built] in five years, so I’d hope that 30,000 of those don’t have to come into Summit County because I think that would fundamentally change Summit County and make it a different place than it is today and make it a vastly different place than I believe the East Side would like to see, again, without any kind of a plan,” Armstrong said.
He suggested waiting until March 13, when the County Council plans to have a focus session on affordable housing. There, he said, councilors could take a deeper dive into their affordable housing goals and make a plan prior to establishing bylaws and kickstarting the housing authority.
County Councilor Megan McKenna said she was under the impression that her co-councilors were ready to move forward with the resolution with its amendments after the meeting last week. She stated she was in favor of approving the resolution.
County Council Vice Chair Canice Harte briefly joined the meeting on Zoom to add his thoughts to the discussion, agreeing with Armstrong that waiting until March would give them the opportunity to have a better conversation.
“These bylaws that we draft here, this is going to be the guiding document for this housing authority,” he said. I want to make sure we, not just get it right, but get it so it achieves the outcome that we want, and we don’t really know what the outcome is. We know we like the idea of affordable housing. We believe we need affordable housing. We have reports that tell us we need it, but we haven’t identified how much and where.”
Jones said his vision of the housing authority included a strategic plan, but he expected the commissioners and executive director to create it after the bylaws were approved in concert with the County Council.
“I’m hearing we want to have a strategic plan and all of the i’s dotted and t’s crossed before we hand something off to the housing authority, and I don’t see it that way,” Jones said. “I see it as the housing authority, their charge is to develop that strategic plan and that operations manual and to work that out, as well as the interlocal agreement with the Council.”
Armstrong emphasized his concerns for the residents of Summit County, telling Jones he wasn’t comfortable handing all affordable housing discussions over to an independent body that is not beholden to voters.
“That’s hard for me to tell the people that elected me that that’s what we’re going to do,” he said. “Your bylaws are a copy and paste of the state statute for housing authorities. There’s not much else in there, so there’s nothing that’s tailored to Summit County in there for what this Summit County Housing Authority is supposed to accomplish. I can’t say yes to that.”
County Council Chair Tonja Hanson said she was not comfortable asking for a motion to approve the bylaws given Armstrong’s reservations and the absences of Harte and Robinson.
“I would like to table this discussion and move it to a date uncertain where we can have the other council members chime in. I’m sorry. I appreciate all your work, but we’re not giving up. We’re going to move forward with it,” Hanson said, addressing Jones.
The housing authority will likely take up a large portion of the County Council’s discussion on affordable housing during its annual retreat on March 13.