Ski resort going to town?
Powder Mountain developers find alternative for expansion
By MARSHALL THOMPSON Standard-Examiner staff mthompson@standard.net
OGDEN - Powder Mountain ski resort may soon become Powder Mountain Town - developers filed paperwork Friday with the Weber County clerk to incorporate as a municipality.
The action could allow resort developers to move ahead with plans to expand into a massive four-season resort in the Ogden Valley without going through the county planning commission.
Last month, after months of workshops and public hearings, the Ogden Valley Planning Commission voted in favor of the resort's rezoning proposal, but attached almost 20 conditions that limited the density of the development and required secondary access roads.
Powder Mountain owner Mark Arnold told the Standard-Examiner that some of the requirements were unreasonable and would have destroyed his vision of the project.
"I just want to see our vision through, and the way things are going, this is what came to the surface to enable us to do that," he said.
"We've been looking at it only as an option, in the case that somebody kicked us out on our nose."
Arnold said "the straw that broke the camel's back" was when the neighboring town of Huntsville passed a resolution Dec. 18 opposing the resort's plans.
County Commissioner Ken Bischoff said he expects the petition for incorporation to be approved within two months. After that, he said, neither the county commission nor the planning commission will have any say in Powder Mountain's development plans.
"They will have their own planning commission and town council," he said. "We won't have anything to do with it. They will determine their own future."
Last year, the Utah Legislature passed HB 466, which expedites the incorporation process. Under the new law, a group can form itself into a town as long as it has 100 to 1,000 residents, owns more than 50 percent of the land mass and owns more than 50 percent of the land value.
Resort developers elsewhere have taken advantage of the relaxed rules to form their own towns. Bryce Canyon City, centered around Ruby's Inn, incorporated in September, and another developer is attempting to form the town of Aspen in Wasatch County.
The only other requirement of HB 466 is that the incorporation petition have five signatures from permanent residents in the area. For that hurdle, Powder Mountain developers got help from Ogden Valley Planning Commissioner Jamie Lythgoe.
"I'm in support of their desire to apply for incorporation, if it's appropriate," said Lythgoe, who signed the petition last week after Arnold approached her about the plans.
Lythgoe, whose family founded Powder Mountain and sold most of their land to the current developers, stirred up a controversy when she refused to recuse herself while the OVPC considered the resort's expansion plans.
Even though about 200 acres of her family's land was included in the resort proposal, she denied any conflict of interest.
Eventually, she abstained from voting and her family's property was removed from the plans.
Louis Cooper, chairman of the planning commission, said he was surprised by Lythgoe's involvement.
"It's kind of interesting that she would be one of the petitioners," he said. "But things change, and situations change, and maybe she decided things are different now."
Lythgoe said she signed the petition to see how the plans would develop. She said it is too early to tell if she would run for mayor or town council.
"I have a feeling of curiosity about what it all means," she said.
Once incorporated, Powder Mountain would be able to make its own rules for development, but it's not an entirely free ride, Arnold said.
"It's still a governmental entity," he said. "We still have to go through a planning commission and a town council. We still have to hold public meetings. It will be easier, though."
What makes the process even smoother is that HB 466 lets the developers choose who gets to run for office. The county appoints the mayor and town council from a list submitted by those who filed the petition to incorporate.
Arnold said construction could begin as soon as the town is approved.
"We had a window of opportunity under the law, and we took it," he said.
The development could include 805 single-family homes, 2,090 multiple-family units, 500 hotel rooms, 11 corporate retreats, a 60,000-square-foot recreation center, a 40,000-square-foot equestrian center, a 40,000-squarefoot air station, three lodges, two 18-hole golf courses and a fire station.
The Powder Mountain resort spills over into Cache Valley, but Arnold said Powder Mountain Town will be in Weber County only.
Ogden Valley residents were shocked to hear the news of the petition Friday.
Krista Dana, whose home in Eden would become part of Powder Mountain Town, said she hadn't heard anything about the new municipality.
"I loved living in Eden," she said, adding that she is interested to see how the new town would develop.
Larry Zini, a member of the Valley Citizens for Responsible Development, said Friday was the first time he heard of the petition to incorporate, but it did not surprise him.
"It's been keeping with the theme that we felt early on, that they wanted to bypass the Ogden Valley Planning Commission," he said.
"I think they were looking down the barrel of a possible rejection or conditions they didn't want to live with, and so they found a different way out."
While a difference exists between what is legal and what is moral, Arnold said, the decision to incorporate Powder Mountain is both.
"I don't want to do anything immoral," he said.
"This is a cool project. I've seen a vision."
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