The Summit County government is in the process of hiring a strategic consultant to help determine the level of services needed to support the Wasatch Back’s aging population. Those services include deed-restricted senior housing and the potential creation of a continuing care facility. Cou nty staff last week updated the Summit County Council on their progress regarding the 2026 work plan, a document intended to guide policies, administrative decisions and local programming based on councilors’ priorities for the year. Deputy County Manager Janna Young, who presented the update alongside County Manager Shayne Scott, told councilors that the county has started to make progress on its three goals relating to services for senior citizens. Those goals are to explore deed-restricted senior housing, engage in strategic planning for programming and facility needs and collaborate with Park City Municipal on its designs for a new senior center. Young suggested the Summit County Housing Authority participate in conversations surrounding deed-restricted housing for seniors, especially because the Housing Authority is in the midst of researching and launching its own pilot programs to offer vouchers and incentivize accessory dwelling units as affordable homes. She said the Housing Authority would likely meet with the County Council sometime this month to further discuss opportunities for senior-specific affordable housing, but a date had not been publicly announced as of Tuesday afternoon. A majority of Young’s presentation focused on future planning, though, with Young telling councilors that the county had issued a request for proposal to hire a strategic consultant. The consultant, once selected, would be tasked with developing a comprehensive document outlining the level of programming needed in Summit County for seniors, the expenses associated with developing those programs and the feasibility of a “continuing care retirement community.” Young said the process would likely be split into two pieces, with the first phase centered around demographics and programming needs. The second phase would be dedicated entirely to an in-depth financial analysis of a retirement community, including potential occupancy numbers and whether the county’s workforce could support the facility. Young estimated the first phase of the process would take at least six months, but she said staff hopes to have a decent amount of information from the consultant by August. That way, the county can incorporate some of the consultant’s takeaways into the budgeting process for 2027, she said. The second phase involving the feasibility study likely won’t start until 2027, Young said. Summit County Councilor Tonja Hanson has repeatedly advocated for increasing the county’s senior services since Elk Meadows, the only senior care facility in Summit County, closed in 2024. She told Young she understood the budget constraints and timeline of the consultant’s work, but Hanson encouraged county staff to prioritize senior services if possible, saying the aging population will only continue to grow older while the county attempts to find a solution. Young also briefly spoke about plans for Park City’s new senior center, which the county has been involved in drafting despite the center’s location within the municipal boundaries. Young said it was important for the county to be involved in the process because Summit County has historically opted to invest in one senior center rather than spreading resources across multiple facilities. However, Young acknowledged that having only one senior center in Park City limits the number of people who may take advantage of its services, especially for seniors on the East Side or residents who have unreliable access to transportation. She said there is a potential opportunity for the PEAK Center, the new county government services building in Kimball Junction, to offer programming to seniors through the library system. Park City’s new senior center is slated for the Mawhinney lot near the Park City Library. The latest proposal presented to the Park City Council last month showed designs for an interior space four to five times larger than the current senior center, with a potential square footage of 15,000 feet. The post Summit County to hire consultant for strategic planning of senior services appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less