A vote to split Jordan District is on, but a similar effort in Granite was stopped cold Thursday — at least for this year.

The Salt Lake County Council didn't even vote on the possibility of putting the split question on the ballot, as the proposition's sponsor, Council Chairman Mark Crockett, withdrew his motion due to a lack of support.

"It was clear there was not enough political energy here or with the Legislature this year" to put a Granite split on the ballot, councilwoman Jenny Wilson said.

But city councilmen in South Salt Lake and Holladay cities, which want to secede from Granite District, say the proposal is far from dead. Sights now are set on next year's election.

"This has had too much grass-roots support" to disappear, said Holladay City Councilman Steve Peterson, who called the county's inaction a shame. "Our next steps will be dictated largely by what the Legislature does or doesn't do."

Cities east of the Jordan River in Granite and Jordan school districts sought to split from those districts and form their own. To do so, all involved, including the county, had to give the green light.

But the county held off because of two worries. First, the law lets only those living in the proposed new districts vote on whether to split up, leaving the entire west side without a voice. Also, the west side has a smaller tax base than the east but more students than the east — and thousands more on the way. How will they afford new buildings?

The Utah Legislature in special session Wednesday addressed some district split issues, including boundary concerns for some Draper residents. It also created some new rules, including letting new district boundaries shift a little without having to redo a feasibility study.

Lawmakers didn't answer the big question, though: How to equalize school property tax money for buildings. A task force will study the matter instead.

They did, however, take the county out of the Jordan split equation by allowing a public vote if municipalities representing 80 percent of a new district give the go-ahead. That way, a city representing a minority of the proposed new district couldn't hijack an election. Only 4 percent of those in the proposed Jordan split-off district live in the unincorporated county.

The move didn't affect the county's say in the Granite proposal, as unincorporated Millcreek makes up more than half of the residents in that proposed new district.

Thursday, hopes of a November vote for those residents died.

Maybe that's not all bad, South Salt Lake City Councilman Bill Anderson said.

"It probably at this point is a good place to pause and kind of catch our breath after we've been trying to jump so many hurdles at the last minute," Anderson said.