SUMMIT SAGA

Affordable Housing for Utah County Plagued by Changing Character

By Headwaters News, 1-11-06

Summit County, Utah, is one of those places in the West where the drama has turned from the everyday life of the hardscrabble ranchers and miners of the past to the effects on them by the influx of urbanites in search of a beautiful place to play. And some claim that the rift between the two, which has always been there to some degree, is further fueled by county leaders giving more voice to the newcomers who primarily reside in Park City.

One of the biggest areas of contention surrounds the amount of affordable housing available in the county. County officials say there is a sufficient supply, but affordable housing advocates say there isn’t, especially the Disabled Rights Action Committee and La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights group. And today, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that while these two groups stand by their belief that the county hasn’t provided adequate housing, the county contends it has, and provided a list of 1,838 houses, condominiums and properties that it deems affordable. That list, the groups say, is misleading.

According to a lawyer with the Salt Lake City firm Hutchings, Baird and Jones, a survey of that list shows that only about a quarter of the properties are actually “affordable,� and one of the addresses listed as an affordable housing unit is actually a bare lot.

As quoted in the Tribune, “What I really think is going on here is, Summit County doesn't want to accept the fact that it has a moderate- and low-income housing problem," said Alain Balmanno, the lawyer.

In turn, the county says that the lawyer’s claim is misleading. County officials say the list is based on federal and state standards that are based on property values, and doesn’t claim it to be anything else. County planners continue to paint the debate on affordable housing as a tangential issue funded by two developers who are suing the county over development decisions.

Meanwhile, thousands of mostly Latino workers who are employed by the county’s many resorts continue to commute every day from the Salt Lake Valley because they can’t afford to live where they work.

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