Utah Legislature: Brief effort to annex Snowbird falls short

SALT LAKE CITY — After a brief legislative run, the bill that would have allowed Snowbird to join Sandy died Tuesday.

The Utah Senate struck the enacting clause of the proposal that would have paved the way for Sandy to annex the resort and instead referred the idea to this summer's interim for further study. The legislation's sponsor, Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, said the bill "is not ready for prime time."

Salt Lake County Council members didn't seem surprised about the decision and agreed the next step was a long conversation with Snowbird.

"We just need to go sit down and have a pretty open dialogue," said Councilman Michael Jensen. "Hopefully, we haven't gotten to the point where we can't have an open discussion."

Councilman Randy Horiuchi said he's pleased with the decision, especially after all the county has done for the resort, including building a fire station across from Solitude to service the canyon, approving construction and zoning plans, and implementing a huge canyon ticketing program.

"We have a good track record with them," Horiuchi said. "We just have to remind them."

Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon said he was glad the bill failed.

"It was bad legislation and bad public policy," he said, especially when considering the public safety concerns of those in the canyon.

In last week's meeting, the County Council had strong words against the resort. Horiuchi said he took the move for annexation personally after taking criticism for helping Snowbird. Other council members said if the resort chose to leave, they would not contract any county services with them, including the Unified Police Department.

But despite those tensions, Corroon and council members said they were hopeful the county and the resort would regain their good relationship.

"I have no hard feelings against Snowbird, and my goal is to work closely with them," Corroon said.

Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan said the city was supportive of the bill, but it was being primarily pushed by the resort.

"Now we have a year to work on it," he told the City Council Tuesday night.