Summit County Council asks Legislature to repeal preliminary municipality law

The Summit County Council voted unanimously on Oct. 7 to adopt Resolution 2026-23, which urges the Utah Legislature to repeal Utah Code Title 10, Chapter 2a, Part 5, the state's preliminary municipality law. Council Member Roger Armstrong made the motion and Council Member Megan McKenna seconded it. ^[1][2][3]

The resolution says a preliminary municipality may not impose a tax, receive sales or gas tax allocations or use eminent domain. It says its board is made up of unelected landowners and their representatives, that no public vote is held as with a normal incorporation, and that if it has not become a town within six years the costs and impacts fall on the county. It says feasibility studies "have notoriously been incomplete and incompetent," and compares the structure to private land bonds the Legislature repealed. ^[1]

The document also lays out the county's argument for local land use control, citing its general plans for two planning districts, Eastern Summit County and the Snyderville Basin, and its affordable housing plan. It concludes by urging the Legislature to repeal Part 5 of the chapter. ^[1]

Chair Canice Harte told the council the county would follow the law and that the disagreement was with the tool, not the governor's aim of building housing. He said developers who do not live in the area could declare a city, write their own zoning and leave the county "holding the bag," and that a 10% affordable housing requirement does not come close to solving the problem. Harte also said a group was working on amending the law, with no way to know whether changes would help or hurt. ^[2][3]

Armstrong said he would not favor trying to fix the statute and that it "needs to go away." He said the county has long sought local housing choice and affordability and that any claim it was avoiding the issue was wrong. Council members said they wanted to keep talking with the state about housing. ^[2][3]

The vote came five days before House Speaker Mike Schultz said full repeal of the law was on the table, and during a dispute between Wasatch County and the state over the same law, as the Ledger has reported. In other business on Oct. 7 the council approved 211 Board of Equalization property tax adjustments, honored Lt. Alan Siddoway for 42 years with the sheriff's office and entered arguments on the $71 million Snyderville Basin recreation bond into the record. ^[2][3]