Contested by Hideout residents and members of the SkyRidge community, Wasatch County Council voted unanimously to approve the development of a new SkyRidge lodge with use of a legislative development agreement. The problem for residents of the Skyridge community and nearby Hideout, aside from the height of the 75-foot-tall building and impact on the adjacent neighborhood, was the lack of transparency and communication — a sentiment reiterated at council meetings in September.An unfulfilled plea for a delay of the Nov. 6 vote was issued by multiple commenters.“We feel like we have not been a part of this process,” Hideout resident Anne Gruber said, supported by fellow resident Jay Keese. Keese said, “We’re not anti-development, we just want to ensure it’s keeping within the beautiful landscape of Jordanelle.”Most residents of Hideout and SkyRidge became aware of potential issues following the public meetings in September, but before the October session, where there was no opportunity for public comment. “We sought a public interactive dialogue to understand what is the project and what are the problems, and to allow people to express their concerns,” Hideout Town Councilor Jonathan Gunn said. “Unfortunately that was not going to happen.” Gunn prefaced his statement to Wasatch County Council by explaining that, as a town councilor, he has received multiple complaints and apprehension from his community in Hideout. A comment from Matt Hutchinson, the attorney for SkyRidge, made it clear that the assumed lack of transparency was not the developer’s problem. Residents had, Councilor Spencer Park said with support from Hutchinson, multiple opportunities to attend public meetings on May 1, Sept. 12, and Sept. 17. There was no need for the additional dialogue.“The developer is not in favor of doing that,” Hutchinson said about scheduling additional meetings.Despite changes made by SkyRidge to accommodate Wasatch County code, residents’ comments have remained consistent throughout conversations this year. The height of the building, the juxtaposition of a lodge with residential housing, environmental concerns with lighting and the golf course and problems with off-site parking have all been expressed. Changes to lodge plans have since been made, including a reduced room count from 84 to 70 — three units owned by the Military Installation Development Authority — and eliminating the lodge’s top floor closest to existing residences.Anders Bake, Wasatch County planner, addressed the lingering height concerns. “From the perspective of being on SkyRidge Drive looking south, the height of the lodge would appear about the same as a normal single family home,” Bake said. “However, from the east side you’re going to see the whole height of the 75-feet. As you go up the hill, it’s going to have less of a visual impact.” With the SkyRidge resort community’s location on the northwest shore of the Jordanelle Reservoir and across from the Deer Valley area, the town of Hideout will take the brunt of visual impact from the lodge. As stated in a letter to the JSPA Planning Commission, signed by eight SkyRidge neighborhood residents, the resort is “way out of proportion to be in the middle of a residential neighborhood.”Wasatch County Councilor Luke Searle expressed in the meeting that the lodge might be moving away from the community benefit of the lodge’s amenities.“We’ve now moved it toward the amenities on the resort side, which I totally understand,” Searle said. “I don’t know if the community itself was in mind with these developments.”While imposing, the height of the building falls within what’s allowed through the legislative development agreement. First discussed with the Wasatch County Council in late Spring, a legislative development agreement is a legal instrument that would act as a sufficient workaround to allow the development of such a lodge within Wasatch County outside of standard Wasatch County code. Despite how the development agreement process fits under allowable options by the Utah state code, this is not the first time one has been used to provide more wiggle room for agreements outside of code stipulations. In November 2023, a similar vote was unanimously passed for a building that was then called too big and too tall by public commenters: the newest Heber Valley temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Then, the county was criticized for working with the church to approve the project as a legislative development agreement, rather than requiring the institution to go through the administrative steps to receive a conditional use permit. Wasatch County’s Deputy Attorney Jon Woodard said at that time, “If you’ve got a super unique project, sometimes a legislative development agreement’s going to make a lot more sense.”Later in that same council meeting, Woodard added that a legislative development agreement is a process that’s allowed under Utah Code, and that “this is not blowing off all of the land-use laws of the county.” The post Wasatch County looks past residents’ concerns to approve development of 75-foot-tall SkyRidge lodge appeared first on Park Record.