Summit County is searching for a new Snyderville Basin Planning Commission member after Thomas Cooke resigned late last year.Cooke, who was appointed to the board in February 2017, said that he has no immediate plans for future civic service.“Eight years is a long time,” Cooke said about his decision to step down. “The most one can serve is nine years. In all my time on the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission, Chuck Klingenstein, a great mentor and teacher, is the only colleague I worked with who served an entire nine years. I am still not quite sure how he did it.”Initially, Cooke applied for a position with the Snyderville Basin Special Recreation District. When he wasn’t selected to sit on that board, former County Councilor Claudia McMullen encouraged him to apply for the Planning Commission instead.“I can’t think of singular projects as things to be proud of, but I do think upholding and adhering to good process is something to be proud of,” Cooke said, reflecting on his tenure as a commissioner. “We have a great general plan that, while authored and adopted in 2015, has served us pretty well. By sticking to the goals and values in that plan and understanding and applying out code, nothing really bad got built. That is something to be proud of.”He also offered advice to whoever will fill his seat in the near future.“Do the work,” Cooke said. “Land use applications require a ton of reading and understanding, and it takes time to gain experience. Be patient, but do the work. Also, never forget that your role as a planning commissioner is to represent the public’s interest in the planning process, not the developer’s.”Ray Milliner, a planner with Summit County, said that there are no specific qualifications to sit on the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission. Interested candidates simply need to fill out the online application, which is available at summitcounty.org/806/Volunteer-Boards-Form.The form asks applicants to detail why they want to serve on the board and collects basic contact information, including addresses.“There are boundary requirements. We’re only allowed to have two members who live within the Park City Municipal boundary area,” Milliner explained. “The rest of the other five will need to live somewhere within the Snyderville Basin area. That’s basically Snyderville Basin, excluding Promontory. Promontory actually is on the East Side technically, as far as our maps go.”County administrators will receive the applications and pass them along to the County Council. Councilors will then interview candidates and appoint a new member in what Milliner described as a relatively quick process.“It could be that it all happens in one day or it could be that the interviews happen one week and the appointments happen the next week,” he said.Milliner added that community members shouldn’t be intimidated to apply if they’re interested.“Just give it a shot and see what happens,” he said.The deadline to apply is Monday, Jan. 13, at 5 p.m.The post Thomas Cooke resigns from Snyderville Basin Planning Commission; ‘Eight years is a long time’ appeared first on Park Record.