Dakota Pacific’s gambit to build on the Tech Center acreage might feel like a chess match or poker game with Summit County, but it’s not.This is tic tac toe.Or, channeling Sundance, we know how this movie ends: Even if we win, we’ll lose.But damn, signing a petition for a chance to vote in a referendum feels at least like doing something about a development pretty much no one wants.Even the county councilors who approved the deal hate the very idea.   Plenty of people ignorant of or discounting the repercussions of a successful referendum blame the council, and that’s a shame.Others with a broader understanding of the stakes fume at the state Legislature and its willingness to override local judgment in favor of building first, last, always and kick the consequences down the ever more congested road, in this case. The governor is all in with that, as well.The county councilors, I believe wisely under these circumstances, sought to salvage the most for the community out of a bad hand.Over the course of five years, they were able to shave a development with 1,100 residential units and some light industrial buildings to 720 units and community amenities including 340 affordable-housing ones, senior housing, a town center, pedestrian bridge, amphitheater, common green and Olympic View park, underground parking, transit facility, library and the like in part through a private-public partnership costing the county $39 million. The county would develop 165 more worker residences on adjoining land, as well.There’s plenty for critics to quibble with and for the ardent opposition to see red and dress accordingly at the meeting in December when four of the five councilors voted for the agreement and the other agreed with their reasoning even if he couldn’t bring himself to vote with them.The more crucial part of all this was the agreement to time phases of construction to improvements to S.R. 224 in the busy Kimball Junction area. Commuting and peak ski day traffic is by far the biggest issue with the development.Seven citizens filed within the week of the County Council’s approval to try to bring the agreement up for a vote in the general election next fall.To get there, they need to collect 4,554 valid signatures from active voters in Summit County by March 3. That comes to 16% of the electorate, along with the additional requirement that three of the four voting areas must each also gather 16% of the voters themselves.Success means the agreement would go to the ballot next November, joining elections for city councils and some special districts. The odds would seem to favor repeal of the development agreement if it got that far, but you never know.Affordable housing advocate Megan McKenna fended off anti-Dakota Pacific candidates last year in the Democratic primary and the general election to win her seat on the County Council. Both of her rivals campaigned in part against her support for a deal with the Dakota devils that provided for affordable housing, and both lost.The anti-Dakota Pacific sentiment is strong, true, but it wasn’t enough to sway any County Council elections. Count on the argument for the pluses of this agreement to sharpen considerably in a general election campaign season.In response to the petition drive for a referendum, Dakota Pacific took advantage of a new law passed by the Legislature to file for preliminary status as a municipality with the Lieutenant Governor’s Office. This would free the developers from the agreement and give them full control of what in effect becomes a town, so long as 10% of it includes affordable housing. At least so far, Dakota Pacific says it intends to build according to the deal with the County Council.Tic and tac, basically. I’d go with checkers, but the outcome here looks more certain even with the petition sponsors’ assertion that the state law surely will be deemed unconstitutional in court, if not repealed this legislative session or next.That sounds more like bravado than anything, though. There’s no indication of either happening. But neither should the likely outcome (toe) stop any voter so inclined from signing, though they should do some reading and thinking about the actual best options for Kimball Junction traffic, as well as affordable housing. Make an informed decision, that is. Signing may well be it.Still, it’s fairly clear to me that those much maligned county councilors struck the best deal we’re going to see in reality, and that they’ve done their homework beyond Facebook familiarity. It would be a shame in the worst case for a great emotional victory at the ballot box that leaves the traffic worse and makes it that much harder for regular folks to find housing. Don Rogers is the editor and publisher of The Park Record. He can be reached at [email protected] or (970) 376-0745.The post Journalism Matters: Are we charging headlong for a Pyrrhic victory over Dakota Pacific? appeared first on Park Record.