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Summit County COG backs multiple reallocation requests and recommends $5.875 million in FY25 TST awards
Summary
The Summit County Council of Governments voted to forward recommendations to reallocate preservation and small‑cities funds for local road, pathway and mitigation projects and recommended $5.875 million in Transportation Sales Tax awards for fiscal year 2025, while asking staff to pursue policy changes to allow multiyear programming.
The Summit County Council of Governments (COG) voted to forward multiple funding reallocation requests to the county council and recommended $5,875,000 in Transportation Sales Tax (TST) awards for fiscal year 2025.
Park City presented a request to reallocate affordable‑preservation funds toward the Baines Phase 2 pathway project, which would continue a previously funded segment and connect residential, commercial and resort areas. Julia Collins (presenter, Park City) described the project as 30% designed and said additional right‑of‑way acquisition funds would improve delivery flexibility and help complete the work by summer 2026. The COG moved and seconded a recommendation to the county council to allow the reallocation; the motion carried with members answering “Aye.”
The COG also considered a request related to the corridor east of State Route 32. COG discussion, prompted by a staff summary, described an earlier preservation grant tied to a potential school site whose bond later failed; members discussed reusing a portion of those preservation funds to preserve access to sewer ponds and to support a Howland/Hallow Road to SR‑248 connection. The committee agreed to forward support for reallocation to work with Summit County to secure right‑of‑way.
A separate request from a small city to reallocate small‑cities grant funds to build a public‑works/road maintenance shop also moved forward. The applicant said the town lost existing storage space while building a civic center and sought small‑cities funds in combination with local funds; COG members noted precedent from previous small‑cities awards for vehicle/maintenance facilities. The motion to forward the city’s request passed with members answering “Aye.”
Summit County staff presented a reallocation request tied to the State Road 32 trail project: rather than purchasing a previously identified school district parcel, staff proposed using the same TST dollars to acquire a ranch to create a wetlands mitigation bank that would serve SR‑32 mitigation obligations and future county projects. Project leads said the approach would consolidate mitigation on county‑owned property and provide flexibility for future projects. The COG forwarded that reallocation recommendation; the motion carried.
On fiscal year 2025 TST awards, staff summarized program finances and competitive scoring. Staff reported approximately $8,000,000 in gross TST revenues for the year but noted annual debt service of about $1,650,000 on previously funded projects, reducing currently available funds to roughly $6,400,000. The TST call produced nine applications totaling about $13.9 million in requests. Applications were evaluated for alignment with the regional long‑range transportation plan, local comprehensive plans and the committee’s goals.
Based on scoring and follow‑up with applicants, staff recommended the following FY25 awards (partial amounts where noted): - Park City Municipal: $3,000,000 to be distributed across multiple Park City projects (partial funding of pathway and a signal/priority/transit project). - High Valley Transit: $2,000,000 for a 2024/2027 BRT project (noted as roughly 40% of the applicant’s request). - Summit County: $875,000 for critical safety and interchange improvements, bicycle‑share and a vanpool pilot.
Staff and members discussed that many projects are phased and not scheduled for construction until 2026–2027, that partial awards are intended to be combined with other funding or requested again in future cycles, and that current TST policies do not yet allow formal multiyear programming. Committee members asked staff to reconvene the TST policy committee to draft policy changes—particularly to allow multiyear commitments—before the next funding cycle.
Other procedural items: the COG approved the meeting minutes (motion seconded and carried) and discussed scheduling the next meeting and reconvening the TST policy subcommittee.
Next steps: the COG’s positive recommendations on the listed reallocation and award items will be forwarded to the county council or implementing agencies for final approval; staff will bring draft TST policy revisions back to the policy committee for review.
