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SALT LAKE CITY — The approval of an agreement to make Mountain Accord an official governmental entity was delayed Tuesday.
The Salt Lake County Council was scheduled to consider an interlocal agreement to help form the Central Wasatch Commission, but it was postponed because the language of the proposal was still being ironed out, county officials said.
Despite the delay, some canyon residents took the opportunity Tuesday to urge the County Council to oppose the commission's creation, while also accusing Mountain Accord of lacking transparency.
It's a theme that appears to contradict the goal of Mountain Accord, a coalition of more than 20 private and public entities — including property owners — that have collaborated over the past several years to plan future development and preservation of Utah's Wasatch recreation areas.
William Clayton, a Little Cottonwood Canyon property owner, questioned the need to form the commission, worrying that it would allow a "power grab." He noted that according to the agreement, the commission would have bonding authority.
"It looks like we may be giving them a lot of power they don't need if they're surely just a recommendation body," Clayton said. "Why give power to somebody if they really don't need it?"
But Laynee Jones, Mountain Accord program manager, said the commission would only formalize the group as a body that could propose recommendations to authoritative municipalities while not superseding the authority of any local jurisdictions.
"The commission won't increase any regulations on private land or Forest Service land," Jones said. "But what it will do is have the benefit of bringing together all the decision-makers in the canyon so there will be public accountability to get projects done in the canyons."
The clause that would grant the commission bonding authority is standard language for creating interlocal agencies, Jones added, and it would be unlikely that the Central Wasatch Commission would ever use that authority because it has no revenue sources to pay for a bond.
Suzie Albertson, another canyon property owner, accused Mountain Accord leaders of playing a "shell game" by prioritizing ski resort stakeholder views over private landowners.
It's a view alleged by the Cardiff Canyon Owners Association, a collection of landowners who own about 1,100 acres in Big Cottonwood Canyon. The group filed a lawsuit last week against Mountain Accord, claiming it has violated Utah's Open and Public Meetings Act.
But Jones said Mountain Accord meetings have been posted on the group's website, and the only reason the meetings haven't been posted on the state's website is because the group isn't an official governmental entity — but it will be if the Central Wasatch Commission is created.
"We want to be responsive to private landowners. We know they're important to everything we do in the mountains," Jones said. "And so a formal public input process like the Central Wasatch Commission will ensure accountability to the private landowners."
The County Council is expected to review the proposal next week.
