White City hopes to make itself a township

White City residents want the added security of a township to protect their borders, stopping Sandy from gobbling up land from the 411-acre island of unincorporated county.

Members of the community council for White City — which has its own water district and unique identity — say they meet the criteria to establish a township and want the Salt Lake County Council to pass a resolution to lock in borders of the area between 700 East and 1300 East and about 9800 South and 10600 South.

"We were some of the first to start township legislation over a decade ago. It was for our purpose to solidify our borders and not be cherry-picked," community council chairman Don Patocka said. "There's no grand plan other than being left alone to be our own."

But Gavin Anderson, deputy district attorney for the county, said the unincorporated area doesn't meet state statutes to formally create a township. That status would allow White City to have its own planning commission and to decide whether it will allow neighboring cities to annex portions of the township.

Anderson said White City does not meet any of the criteria to become a township, including having 20 percent of land in the unincorporated county, 20 percent of assessed taxable property in the unincorporated county or having 5 percent of the total population of unincorporated county.

White City does not come close on the land standards, Anderson said, and barely misses the mark on the population percentage.

But Patocka said White City has a different interpretation of the statute that puts the area far above the needed 5 percent population figure. If the population of existing townships is taken out of the equation, White City's 5,700 residents make up more than 5 percent of unincorporated residents.

Anderson, however, said those township residents should be included in the calculations, an addition that bumps White City's percentage down to only 3 percent of 182,000 unincorporated residents.

The council could still make its own interpretation and opt to pass a township resolution, he added. But White City still wouldn't be completely protected because cities such as Sandy could contest the township status based on the population dispute any time it wanted to annex.

"If the council used the wrong legal standard to create it just because the White City folks thought that was justified, that wouldn't stop (such action,)" Anderson said. "Just because the county council might say it's OK, it's a fight that could go on into the future."