Developer proposes Silver Creek mixed-use village with grocery, childcare and deed-restricted employee housing; offers land for roundabout

Tony Tyler, a principal with Columbus Pacific Development, presented a conceptual master plan development and rezone for a roughly 30.07-acre parcel at Silver Creek Road during a Snyderville Basin Planning Commission work session. The plan would realign zoning to the county’s Neighborhood Mixed Use (NMU) framework in order to accommodate a compact mix of residential, commercial, transit and public‑oriented uses.

Tyler said the proposal would group neighborhood‑serving commercial uses near the Interstate 80/40 interchange — including a grocery/deli, two restaurants, a DABC liquor location and small retail — with mixed‑use buildings, employee housing above ground‑floor retail and a two‑story early childhood hub that the applicant said he would donate to a nonprofit early childhood provider. "If they would like to pursue this solution, I'd donate the land," Tyler said when describing his roundabout and childcare offers. He also described a concept for on‑site electric vehicle charging and a transit stop or park‑and‑ride footprint in coordination with High Valley Transit.

Why it matters: The project is presented as a neighborhood node intended to reduce trips to larger commercial cores such as Kimball Junction by providing day‑to‑day retail and services closer to nearby residences, and to supply deed‑restricted housing aimed at people working in the development. Tyler said the businesses would create an estimated 338 jobs and that the site could accommodate about 194 housing units, with roughly 110 single‑occupancy/co‑living units among them; he attributed underlying employment data to county staff member Jeff Jones.

What the plan includes: The applicant’s concept places a roundabout at the Division Street/Silver Creek Road approach (Tyler proposed donating land for it), a central "main street" with retail and restaurants around the roundabout, larger single‑tenant buildings for a neighborhood grocery and liquor outlet, mixed‑use three‑story buildings with employee housing, townhomes adjacent to trails, and a separate western parcel that could remain as five estate lots or be reconfigured for up to dozens of smaller ownership homes with deed restrictions for affordability.

Commissioners’ response and questions: Commissioners generally expressed support in principle for a roundabout and the inclusion of workforce housing and childcare but raised repeated concerns about project scale, traffic mitigation and legal/code limits. Commissioners asked for verification of several technical points — including exact unit counts, setbacks from the freeway (Tyler estimated about 100 feet), whether NMU code language would need to be amended to allow single‑family housing, and whether a proposed drive‑through option is allowed (staff noted drive‑throughs are not permitted in NMU‑1). The chair emphasized that rezones and entitlement increases carry a high bar and asked the applicant and staff to refine smaller, alternate configurations and to document engineering and financial feasibility for the roundabout before proceeding.

On affordability and prioritization: Tyler described a prioritization approach for deed‑restricted units similar to the Slope Side Village model, with potential priority tiers (for example, households under 50–60% AMI, then up to 80% AMI). He told commissioners the applicant intends to restrict some units to income tiers and to use market‑rate for‑sale townhomes to subsidize deed‑restricted rental units elsewhere on site. Staff clarified private development funded without state/federal tax credits can include local prioritization rules, whereas tax‑credit projects are bound by equity rules that prevent worker‑only preference lists.

Next steps: This was a nonaction work session soliciting feedback. Staff and the applicant agreed to provide additional, smaller scale alternatives and more detailed data for follow‑up meetings. Staff also noted the county’s broader visioning process is underway and may inform future general plan or code changes that affect this application.

No formal motions or votes were taken at the work session. The commission closed the work session and moved to the 6:00 p.m. session; staff announced upcoming items including an April review of a corridor/trail master plan and code amendments related to accessory dwelling units.