Summit County says housing suit is a ruse by developers

An affordable-housing lawsuit against Summit County is just a ruse to fill developers' pockets, county officials say.

The suit, filed last week by the NAACP, Utah Coalition of La Raza and the Disabled Rights Action Committee, charges Summit County with using zoning laws to block affordable housing and minority groups from the mountain region.

But County Attorney David Thomas said those minority groups are being used by landowners and Anderson Development, a co-plaintiff in the suit that has been pushing the county to allow higher densities in the Snyderville Basin.

"Pulling in the NAACP and these minority groups to try to make their profit, that was not the intent of the Fair Housing Act," Thomas said. "It's a tactic to try to get publicity."

None of the three minority groups initiated the legal action and none of them would receive a cut of the $40 million in damages sought by the lawsuit.

"They're just being used," said Shelley Weiss, executive director of the Community Outreach Program for minorities in Park City. "It's a disgusting ploy by the developer to get higher densities and more value for their property."

But Michael Hutchings, a Salt Lake attorney representing the minority groups, said county leaders are the ones abusing minority groups by enforcing a density of one unit per 20 acres in the Snyderville Basin. That zoning, he said, nearly eliminates the possibility of building affordable homes for minorities who work in Park City and the county.

"For Summit County officials to say these groups are being misused in some way is pretty hollow," he said. "Talk about misuse — it's Summit County that isn't allowing any of these minority groups to buy homes."

Anderson Development already has another lawsuit pending against Summit County requesting a zone change to allow a big-box development in the Silver Creek region.

The latest suit, Thomas said, is a last-ditch effort by the developer to increase land values, not to provide affordable housing. A preliminary plan by Anderson to develop 500 acres in the Snyderville Basin did not even show a substantial affordable housing component, he said.

The plan did set aside roughly 42 acres of the development for multi-family homes, which Hutchings estimated would total about 620 apartments. All of those apartments would meet affordable housing requirements, he said, and about 7 percent of them would be handicapped accessible.