Elbow room in southwest S.L. Valley spurs action

HERRIMAN — Rob and Carol Dean moved from Draper to their home at the base of the Oquirrh Mountains, beyond Herriman, about a year-and-a-half ago.

It's about as far from the hubbub of Salt Lake County as you can get and still be in the county. In fact, it's so far southwest it's actually beyond any city limits. And they really want it to stay that way.

"We want to preserve the open space," Rob Dean said.

So the Deans joined the dozens of southwest Salt Lake Valley residents at a community meeting and barbecue Thursday evening, who gathered to talk about the idea of forming a new township with the sole purpose of keeping the area an unincorporated part of the county.

Herriman is Utah's fastest-growing city. According to recent U.S. Census numbers, it has grown by 450 percent since 2000. When the city incorporated in 1999, it had 800 people. Now city officials estimate more than 16,000 people live there.

It's that kind of quick growth that many of Herriman's neighbors want to avoid.

On Thursday evening, three deer grazed in a field just beyond the fence of the Triple D Ranch as residents asked county Mayor Peter Corroon about the township idea and whether it could help them keep the area as rural as possible.

"The township is the best option to avoid annexation," Corroon told them.

A township is an officially designated piece of unincorporated county land. Unlike an incorporated city, a township is not self-governing. Instead, it receives its services from the county.

But unlike other unincorporated areas, townships cannot be annexed by a neighboring city piece by piece, unlike land in other unincorporated areas. An entire township can be annexed but only by a two-thirds vote of registered voters.

Annexations in the rest of the unincorporated county are done by a simple majority vote of landowners, not residents. And one vote is not necessarily one vote: Large landowners' votes carry more weight.

Unincorporated areas are represented by community councils, which have no governing authority. They instead act as advisers to the mayor's office. Township councils similarly have no governing authority, although their advice is typically more centered on land-use issues and carries more weight with the County Council, Corroon said.