My name is George Hansen. I am a private citizen of Wasatch County. I am also the founder of the Snake Creek Preservation Society. Since 1990, we have been central to the conservation and protection of Snake Creek Canyon above Midway.
The Snake Creek protection is in perpetuity and includes both federal and state agencies and public and private landowners, and funding from dozens of resources. Public access is granted on the public and private parcels. But the most central concept that makes it work are the conservation easements held in perpetuity by an accredited land trust — in our case, Utah Open Lands.
I have known Wendy Fisher (Utah Open Lands) and Cheryl Fox (Summit Land Conservancy) for years. They are highly competent professionals, they are honorable, but most importantly, they are both from accredited land trusts.
In the recent discussions about Jordanelle Ridge, innuendos and misinformation have prevailed. Diverse and divisive conversation about perceived issues, whether it be such as city/county relationships, election year rhetoric, misunderstandings and misinformation regarding the details of perpetual conservation, or even a non existing “competitiveness” between these sister land trusts, all divert attention from the main singular issue — that being the need to assure this conservation in perpetuity through a third party.
Clear facts and direction are required to ensure that the public does benefit in perpetuity as promised by the developer. Ensuring the public benefit of open space will only happen through a permanent conservation easement held by a third party who possesses the KSA (knowledge, skills and abilities) to enable a true conservation easement in perpetuity. You need to have experts hold this conservation easement.
It is abundantly clear that neither Wasatch County nor Heber City nor the developer have the KSA to correctly draft, monitor and enforce perpetual conservation efforts and easements. They all live by planning and zoning and development codes and agreements.
Maximization of tax bases and a multitude of services, from roads to sewer to building permits, is at the heart of the mission of county and city government. That is not bad. It is necessary for functional communities, for roads, schools and public safety and services.
But with respect to perpetual conservation of open space, most public officials and private citizens are only vaguely familiar with the concept and have little appreciation for the requirements of baseline documentation, annual monitoring and defense of perpetual protection.
Such protection is only as valid and strong as those entrusted to enforce it. The role of an accredited land trust is to be that enforcement — to not let the land become the subject of future politic or policy.
An “open space easement,” no matter how sincere the current landowner and local civic jurisdiction may be, is in reality nothing more than a contract, fungible and changeable when political winds blow too strongly, opening the door to potential modification or extinguishment.
It is also important to note that this is not just about the attributes of this particular parcel. In the aggregate, the emissions, runoff, light, noise, ridgeline impacts and so forth cumulatively degrade the quality of life of all county residents, including humans.
All parties seem to have expressed a desire for perpetual conservation, but each party seems to have their own definition thereof. But there are already several examples of land being properly and perpetually preserved in our community: the Kohler Farm and Snake Creek among the several examples. This is not rocket science, and we do not need to re-invent this wheel.
I implore and invite all of the parties here involved to sit down at the proverbial table. This project demands and deserves employing the KSA of an accredited land trust and the associated third party protection.
George Hansen
Founder, Snake Creek Preservation Society, Midway