Transportation and density are unsurprisingly the top two concerns associated with Dakota Pacific Real Estate’s proposal for a mixed-use development at the Park City Tech Center.Traffic was the main issue Summit County residents opposed to the project addressed during a public hearing last week, and adding more housing units implies there will be more cars driving through the S.R. 224 corridor.Dakota Pacific CEO Marc Stanworth and members of the Summit County Council weren’t surprised to hear the feedback. It’s largely been the same over the past five years that the project has been considered.It started with a proposal for 1,100 units, was reduced to 727 units and dropped down to 695 before a private subcommittee was convened to work out the details of a potential public-private partnership.When the conversations returned to the public, the new proposal was to build a 750-unit neighborhood — 500 market rate and 250 affordable — west of the Skullcandy building and create a series of community amenities on surrounding land in Kimball Junction.Summit County Councilor Roger Armstrong said on Wednesday that number doesn’t work for him, especially when the county’s last counter-proposal in April was set at 600 and the latest plan involved more retail than before. “Then I was surprised, not in a good way, when the first mention of density came back out and not only did the 500 units of market not change, but DPRE’s position of 695 units actually rose to 750. It went up again, went actually higher than the proposal that came back to us two years ago in January,” he said. “The density in my mind is still too high.”Summit County could also build 165 affordable units of its own, bringing the total combined number to 917 — reminiscent of the original proposal.“If we were concerned about density before, we just poured gas on the entire thing and lit it on fire,” Armstrong said. “I can’t imagine that things move here without some changes in the economics that drive some of that. … I can’t swallow 917 and I can’t swallow 750.”He didn’t feel like there had been as much movement from Dakota Pacific on the density issue. Armstrong said the public-private partnership is the “entryway” into getting the residential back in. Now officials need to calculate how much of that would actually work in the area.County Councilor Chris Robinson, who served on the subcommittee, suggested Dakota Pacific reduce its number of market-rate units from 500 to 400. “We’ve heard you say that you’ve got minimums and so forth and we’ve been fairly consistent before in saying that [the density is too high],” he said. “We’ve been arguing for lower units when we were talking about units. This is our first discussion now to talk about units, but 400 instead of 500 market units.”Robinson also told Stanworth that Summit County will need some of the water shares that the development firm acquired through the purchase of the Tech Center property from the Boyer Company for the public-private partnership as well as a better understanding of what the costs allocation might be. The timing and scheduling of the project and its connection to the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program also need to be refined to determine what units can be built when.Stanworth said the project would be a “non-starter” if the County Council decides nothing can be built before S.R. 224 is improved. He also reaffirmed the financial feasibility of the project as proposed.“I assure you, if there was a scenario where we said we can make a reasonable rate of return with 400 units, we would have proposed it two years ago because it’s costing us dearly for this thing to drag on. Unfortunately, that’s not the reality of the economic situation that we’re dealing with. So, I’m struggling. You can tell I’ve struggled in the past with these unit counts when they were previously proposed, and from our perspective costs went up in many different ways,” Stanworth said. The CEO understands residents want less density, but he said the development firm arrived at this point because it’s what makes the most sense. “I understand the ask to try to continue to de-densify but we are squeezing water out of a rock at this point. We don’t have the luxury to just say, let’s chop 100 units out and still make sense. It will not make economic sense for us,” Stanworth said. “I don’t know where that leaves us. I can tell you right now 400 units does not work.”He views the public-private partnership as a way for the two parties to come together and build something better than they could on their own. Stanworth was also optimistic the Utah Department of Transportation would partner with Summit County and the development firm to select the best fix for traffic in the Kimball Junction area.County Council Chair Malena Stevens said officials need to decide whether it’s an asset or a liability for people to live and work in Summit County, particularly near the Tech Center.County Councilor Canice Harte noted the panel has to legally consider the application to modify the existing development agreement. He encouraged residents to start thinking about the future — with growth and development on the horizon — and the need to lay the infrastructure now rather than then, especially with the pressure from the Utah Legislature.Harte said he thinks the project is going to be built either way, regardless if the County Council votes no. So the best thing to do is work together to make the best of the situation.“What counties really have to worry about now is having land use authority completely taken away completely by the state as they’re trying to promote housing and push. It starts to beg the question of what’s the best path for counties. Do you partner? Do you try to work together to try to maintain some semblance of control of what goes in there? Do you fight it and have it taken away from you potentially? These are all questions the council is struggling with,” Harte said. He continued, “There is no version of this that we see where we can vote no and it goes away as much as the public would love for that to be the end result. We’re working through this and a lot is in play and moving around right now.”Dakota Pacific is scheduled to continue its discussion with the County Council next week. No date for a final vote has been set.The post Summit County pushes back on Dakota Pacific’s 750-unit proposal for Kimball Junction appeared first on Park Record.