Developer asks commission to remove plat note blocking Red Pine Road access; commissioners ask for legal review

An applicant representative told the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission at a work session that recorded easements and design guidelines support allowing primary access to a 0.92-acre parcel from Red Pine Road and asked that the commission consider removing a 2012 plat note that currently prohibits such access.

The work session centered on project 13-077, a plat amendment and final site plan for the parcel (proposed as six condominium/townhouse structures to be operated as hotel lodging under the Hyatt Centric program). Staff and the applicant outlined the parcel’s complex record: it was platted as part of the Escala/Sunrise developments, amended in 2006 and 2008, and had a subdivision recorded in 2012 that included a plat note stating Red Pine Road would not be used for primary access.

Applicant representative Tony said he had reviewed deeds and recorded easements dating to the 1970s and the SPA (specially planned area) exhibits and argued the 2012 note was added on incomplete information. He proposed removing the note in conjunction with a final site plan that would limit the parcel to hotel-lodging use, centralize utilities and check-in at the adjacent Hyatt Centric, and adopt mitigation measures such as a 50-foot landscape buffer adjacent to Red Pine Road.

Commissioners and staff questioned whether alternate access paths or fire/service hookups might avoid using Red Pine Road. Tony replied the property’s configuration — including a ski easement, a high-pressure gas pump station, and building footprints — made certain alternate routes infeasible and that fire and service access, plus hotel operations (shuttles, carts, housekeeping), made vehicular access on Red Pine Road necessary.

Commissioners asked staff to assemble historical meeting minutes (including the withdrawn 2019 application), confirmed recorded easements and verify whether the plat note’s restriction was included in the SPA or was added at the 2012 meeting, and requested a formal legal opinion on the easement’s applicability and on whether the previous planning-commission action should be revisited. The commission agreed to hold another work session once staff and legal counsel return with those materials.

Next steps: staff will share the referenced 2012 and 2019 minutes, supply the recorded easement documents, and request a legal opinion; the application will return to the commission for another work session and then a public hearing if the applicant proceeds.