Planning commission urges county council to approve three wording fixes to housing element

The Eastern Summit County Planning Commission on Sept. 7 voted to forward a positive recommendation to the Summit County Council to correct three textual differences in the county’s moderate income housing element so it matches state code.

Unidentified staff (first speaking at SEG 030) said the county received a notice of noncompliance after a state review found the local plan’s language did not exactly match statutory wording. “This hearing tonight is simply to fix those typos,” the staff member said, identifying three corrections staff proposed to align the plan with the state’s required text.

The three fixes are specific and limited: in Strategy A the plan’s capitalized “County” is changed to lowercase “county”; in Strategy C the local language is changed to read “internal or detached accessory dwelling units” (replacing the plan’s “and”); and in Strategy E staff replaced the verb form with the noun form used in state code, changing “participate” to “participation.” The staff member said the county must submit an updated plan to the state by Nov. 5 to address the notice of noncompliance.

A commissioner moved “that we forward a positive recommendation to the Summit County Council pursuant to the staff’s findings and facts and conclusions of laws contained in the staff report,” and another commissioner seconded the motion (first moved at SEG 073). The chair opened a public hearing and asked for comment; no members of the public spoke. With no discussion offered, the chair called for the vote and participants voiced support. The transcript records 'aye' responses and indicates the motion passed; a formal roll-call tally was not recorded in the transcript.

Why it matters: matching the precise statutory wording is a prerequisite for the state to deem the county’s housing element compliant. If the state accepts the corrected text, the county would resolve the current notice of noncompliance without substantive policy changes to housing programs.

Next steps: the commission’s recommendation will go to the Summit County Council for its consideration; staff indicated the county aims to resubmit the plan to the state before the Nov. 5 deadline.