- Sandy City Council voted to annex 21 parcels from Granite, hindering the community's efforts to incorporate as a new city.
- Granite leaders aim for a November 2026 incorporation vote despite new obstacles.
- Residents express concerns over losing community identity and control over land use.
GRANITE — Leaders and some residents of an unincorporated community in southeastern Salt Lake County have been pushing for it to become its own city, but the Sandy City Council voted Tuesday night to initiate its annexation.
The annex would include 21 parcels from the Granite community, an area nestled around the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon. The move is not exactly welcomed by some people who call the area home, as the Granite Community Council would like to preserve the area's identity.
Granite community leaders commissioned a feasibility study last year and a final report was released last month, concluding that "the proposed incorporation of the community council area is both functionally and financially feasible."
The study was based on current maps and properties intended for the proposed city, which has a population of just under 1,000.
"If they successfully annex any properties, then we're basically knocked back a full year, because the key event is the election," Vaughn Cox, chairman of the Granite Community Council and a member of the preservation committee, told KSL Tuesday.
The community council said its goal is to get a proposed incorporation vote on the November 2026 ballot, but Sandy officials announced at a City Council meeting in early March that they were seeking to annex about 45 parcels into the city.
"I am here to plead with you emotionally; please, let us have a vote," said Anna, who lives in the Granite area, before the Sandy City Council on Tuesday.
Despite opposition from property owners and residents who spoke during Tuesday's public hearing, council members voted unanimously in favor of annexing 21 of those parcels from Granite into Sandy; they paused a vote on annexing another eight parcels until a later date.
"Honestly, I don't really know how I feel about (being) back in Sandy city or being in Granite, but my fundamental thing is I just want the choice," said Douglas Knight, a property owner in the community.
The council is expected to vote whether to annex an additional four parcels at its next meeting.
Sandy Community Development DirectorJames Sorensen said the city has long welcomed adjacent communities to explore annexing into the city, if residents so desire. Though a measure passed by state lawmakers in 2024 aims to eliminate unincorporated islands — and create "wall-to-wall" cities within Salt Lake County.
HB330 states that homeowners in unincorporated Salt Lake County areas within or adjacent to the city will be annexed by July 2027. Though in the case of Granite, residents have been going through the incorporation process to become a city.
"I think the benefit that people over the years have seen, and that we definitely have in Sandy city when people annex in; what they enjoy is our property taxes. And our services are generally less expensive in Sandy city than you'll see in Salt Lake County," Sorensen told KSL on Wednesday.
Granite's feasibility study notes that property taxes could be slightly higher if it were incorporated.
Cox said residents who have expressed interest in incorporating want to maintain the historic nature and rural feel of the 165-year-old area.
"We also want to have control over the land use and zoning in our own community," he said. "Sandy has openly embraced the idea of multifamily housing, apartment complex, teeny tiny lots. And our community is a real community that has larger lots, and a lot of people have large gardens and orchards and things like that and we want to maintain that look and feel."
Though at this point, it's uncertain if residents will have a say in the matter in November.
"We are on life support, but it is not over," said Jim Eakins, chairman of the Granite Preservation Committee.
Granite community leaders will now have to revise the proposed incorporation map to exclude the 21 parcels, resubmit it to Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson's office, which oversees elections in Utah, and request a modified feasibility study.
"We could still make the November election if we did that, and everything went according to plan," Eakins said.
However, Eakins, Cox and other residents are concerned that more obstacles may arise and would push the effort back even further.
"If we can't be on the November 2026 election, then we'd be locked back to the November 2027 election," Cox said. By then, the area would already have been annexed by Sandy by default.
Granite residents and leaders will discuss where the proposed plans for incorporation go from here at a town hall meeting Friday, April 17, at Granite Elementary.
