The Summit County Council is calling for a reevaluation of Cline Dahle’s proposal

Summit County officials are delaying the deadline to submit a request for proposals for the Cline Dahle site in Jeremy Ranch until they can convene a small group of community stakeholders to assess the feasibility of their vision for the property.

The draft document primarily focuses on addressing the urgent need for workforce housing in the community. Still, Summit County Council members expressed a number of ideas for the land and suggested the request for proposals didn’t quite align with what they wanted for the future. Officials have had difficulty defining what they want at this point or postponing negotiations until later negotiations.

Economic Development and Housing Director Jeff Jones presented the County Council on Wednesday with specific details on elements of the proposal, including approval of a project density of up to 210 units, excluding additional rental units that can be built over detached garages, and the distribution of deed-restricted units.

Jones suggested that about 10% of the project site be single-family homes, 19% single-family rental homes and 71% multifamily rental properties.

About half of the units would be deed-restricted and the remainder would be market rate. Most housing would be reserved for households making between 30% and 60% of the area median income, which is no more than $91,800 for a family of four. Approximately one-quarter of the units would be reserved for the AMI ranges 61%-80% and 81%-100%. Less than 10% could be deed limited for the range of 101% to 107%, 6% for the range of 121% to 150% and 1% for households with income less than 30%.

The majority of the units would be for two- or three-plus households. Jones said there has been a loss of families with children in Summit County, largely due to affordability issues in the market.

A housing project in Cline Dahle could help address the decline while creating ownership opportunities for the county’s workforce, who are its main target residents. However, larger units present additional challenges as they take longer to sell.

But that could all change.

“I think that the City Council has the opportunity to negotiate that once you select the development plan that you feel will best serve our community design-wise, I think that period of time where there is the exclusive right to negotiate , giving the city council a unique opportunity to say, ‘We want more of this.’ or ‘Less of this,'” Jones said.

Most district councilors thought the number was too high. Members suggested refining the call for proposals to better reflect the goals officials want to achieve – although each member had slight differences in how this should be achieved.

District councilors Canice Harte and Roger Armstrong had no desire to see 210 units built on the 17 acres of developable land. They wanted the request done right.

Harte interpreted the draft document to mean that the land should be developed with as much housing as possible and questioned whether the county wanted this. He pushed for a more innovative project that better combines a mix of commercial, civic and residential uses.

“The way I would read this now, I really see it as, ‘Oh, they’re just trying to fit a lot of units on this property,’ and all I’m going to see from a proposal is that it’s what I expect.” a huge rectangular box full of apartments with these different mixes,” he said. “I’m not looking for quantity. I’m looking for quality.”

The total number was less of a problem for County Councilman Chris Robinson, even though he had envisioned single-family homes rather than multi-family homes on the property, because he thought it was unrealistic that the county would build a large number of apartments and try to rent them out.

“I like the idea of ​​having an “up to” number. Personally, I don’t think it makes me want to vomit when I think about it and break it down: 20 single-family homes, 38 or 39 townhomes, and the rest are multi-family,” Robinson said. “I’m not saying we have to do this now. We have enough to do with the DPRE project. We don’t have to do this now. I think this is very consistent with the housing plan for middle-income people. I don’t think we can keep sending people back to haunt them and say, ‘You didn’t get it right.'”

Robinson noted that some of the elements included in the request for proposals may be out of touch with economic reality, which would likely be reflected in the submissions the county receives.

County Council Chairwoman Malena Stevens said she doesn’t want to invest a lot of taxpayer money in the project.

The planning department began collecting feedback on the Cline-Dahle project earlier this year with the goal of issuing a request for proposals to find a developer to work with the project. Since then, council members have disagreed over whether the draft clearly expresses the county’s goals and directed staff to amend the document.

Jones told council members they need to be clear about what they really want from the site. Then employees can perform a value test to determine what is possible and what is not. He wondered if the district was “putting the cart before the horse.”

“It’s really difficult to take all of these pieces and say we want something great, but we can’t define it in this space, but we kind of want someone else to define it,” Jones said.

Instead of changing the draft proposal that staff had been working on for months, officials decided to hold a work session to determine the economic feasibility of their demands.

Summit County Manager Shayne Scott indicated that depending on scheduling, it could be a small meeting with planning department staff and up to two county councilors or a work session with the entire county council. People with experience in development, construction or design are invited. If that fails, they might consider a design competition.

The Cline-Dahle property would likely be converted to a mixed-use neighborhood zone once a project is selected. Jones said the county council could also create a new zoning district that would better support the desired product on the property. Officials are expected to form a “creative alliance” with the selected development team to implement the preferred plan.

Jones revised the schedule to move the proposal deadline to Dec. 18. A project could be awarded by January 2025, with project implementation in May next year.