Group shuns Granite township drive, wants to be in Sandy

As one citizens group from Salt Lake County's east-side Granite community moves forward with a campaign to acquire township status, another has decided it wants out — out of the township drive and out of the community—and is seeking annexation by Sandy city.

Granite Community Council Chairman Mike Hansen said Friday that an effort to put a township initiative on the ballot in 2010 was certified on Oct. 1 by the county clerk's office after a few snags in meeting the statutory mandates. Now, citizens behind the drive are moving forward with an outreach campaign. The ballot item will give the community's 2,000 or so residents a chance to weigh in on, among other things, gaining protection against annexation by nearby municipalities, which comes with township status.

In the meantime, however, more than two dozen homeowners on and around Bell Canyon Road in west Granite, whose properties abut Sandy City boundaries, want nothing to do with the township drive and have filed papers asking to be annexed into Sandy.

One of those residents, Jason Nicholl, said Friday that he and his neighbors are exercising their right of self-determination and looking to avoid what he described as the "ever-escalating tax burden" of remaining in unincorporated Salt Lake County.

"We approached the Granite Community Council when they first started this effort and asked that they, instead, seek annexation into Cottonwood Heights or Sandy city. …We were ignored," Nicholl said. "My neighbors and I are just trying to protect our tax base and get out of paying the highest taxes in the valley, which is what's happening now in the county."

Nicholl said he and other residents are currently paying over a dollar a day for fire protection and have experienced annual tax increases through special district tax levies.

"If we become part of Sandy, fire protection costs me less than 20 cents a day," Nicholl said.

Hansen contends that this move by his fellow Granite residents is "ignoring that they are part of a community that was established 140 years ago" and runs counter to the mandates provided in state legislation passed last year that includes stipulations for what can, and cannot happen, while a township initiative effort is under way. While Hansen acknowledged the requests for annexation likely follow the letter of the law, they undermine the intent of the new statute.

"We've looked very closely at this and our analysis would indicate that it does not violate the wording, but does clearly violate the spirit of the law," Hansen said.

Salt Lake County Council Chairman Joe Hatch said Friday he believes the group seeking annexation is taking an approach that is "completely mutating the process" and should, instead, mount an anti-township campaign.