Granite area seeking township status

In a move that calls for an immediate halt to any annexation efforts, members of the Granite Community Council filed signed petitions Wednesday that begin their quest for township status.

The board's chair, Mike Hansen, said bits and pieces of the community have been systemically carved out via annexations by Sandy for decades, a process that hundreds of residents want to end.

"As of right now, that stops," Hansen said. "This is our first step toward letting Granite residents decide the future of Granite."

Hansen, along with community-council members Mary Young and Tod Young, delivered a box of petitions to Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen that included the signatures of 355 residents.

Per statute, no annexations can proceed once a township-referendum process has begun with the filing of petitions. Swensen's office will certify the signatures and, with the help of the county assessor, determine whether those who signed own property that totals at least 10 percent of the community's land area and 10 percent of the assessed value of that land, the requisites for getting a township referendum on the ballot in 2010.

Mary Young said her group had already verified that 302 of the approximately 700 private parcels in the Granite community are represented on the petitions, and she anticipates the ballot requirements will be met.

Under provisions of last year's update of township legislation, ratification only requires a simple majority vote by residents.

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