Summit County officials raise concerns about HB356 districting provisions that would force district-based council seats

Summit County officials warned Feb. 19 that a proposed state bill, HB356, would force council-manager counties to move to district-based council seats and could reduce representation for the county's eastern communities.

County staff member Jana, presenting the legislative update to the Summit County Council, said HB356 would require third- through sixth-class counties that use a council-manager form of government to ensure at least 65% of council members represent single-member districts. The bill also would require counties to form a districting commission by June 1, draft district maps using the most recent census, and present a proposed map to the county council by Aug. 1 for approval. Under the timeline Jana outlined, district-based elections would begin in November 2026 with newly staggered terms starting Jan. 1, 2027; she said current council terms would end Dec. 31, 2026 to effect the change.

“By June 1 of this year the county would need to establish a county districting commission,” Jana told the council. She said the commission would include a mayoral representative from each municipality and one resident from the unincorporated county appointed by the council, and that the map must meet standard legal requirements for population deviation, contiguity and compactness.

Eve Furze, Summit County clerk, told the council the change would increase 2026 ballot activity and election administration work. “It would increase the size of our election for 2026,” Furze said, noting that adding multiple county races could require reprecincting and more ballot processing.

Council members pressed staff and one another about the bill's likely effect on local representation. Council member Roger (first name only in the record) and others argued that fewer, larger districts risk concentrating voting power on the West Side and could make it harder for the East Side to elect a representative. “If we had 3 districts ... it really hurts the East Side voice,” Roger said during the discussion. Several council members said, if the county has any input, they would ask for more districts rather than fewer to preserve geographic balance.

The bill drew questions about who would sit on the districting commission. Furze said the commission makeup as described in the draft—mayors from municipalities plus a single representative from the unincorporated area—felt imbalanced to residents of the unincorporated county. “I'd like a little more representation than that on the commission,” Furze said.

Jana said the bill was heard that morning in the House Political Subdivisions Committee and passed favorably; she and other county staff said they would discuss the measure at the Utah Association of Counties (UAC) meeting the following day and continue communicating with legislative sponsors and the League of Cities and Towns about amendments.

The legislative briefing covered several other bills that county staff and the council said could affect Summit County's budget and operations, including:

- HB241/HB249 (energy-related bills): Staff said changes under negotiation would make some energy zone provisions voluntary and preserve local authority over tax-increment agreements; county staff were working with UAC and economic-development partners to draft amendments.

- HB332 (voter-registration database): Furze said the substitute that passed the House would remove the state's participation in the ERIC database and add new, time-consuming requirements for follow-up when mailed ballots are returned undeliverable.

- HB512 (judicial retention ballot language): Staff warned that mandated additional language on judicial-retention lines could require a two-card ballot in some elections, increasing printing, handling and verification costs.

- TRT (transient room tax) changes: Staff summarized a substitute that would add a statewide 1% TRT, carve 25% into a grant program and expand eligible uses for certain counties; Summit County staff said the county would not automatically qualify for some grants unless it raised its local rate to the new maximum.

- Property-tax / truth-in-taxation proposals (including HB511 and HB428): Staff said several bills could alter how new growth revenue is calculated and could complicate the county's budgeting process.

- HB368 (land-use task force) and HB337 (land-use / HTRZ language): Jana and council members said the county has sought a stronger role on the state land-use task force and flagged proposed deadlines for identical-floor-plan reviews and other provisions that could limit local land-use discretion.

County staff said they would continue to track the bills and seek clarifying amendments. Jana and other staff urged the council that the county's immediate priorities would be pushing for language changes that preserve at-large representation or increase the number of districts to protect East Side representation, and for clearer rules on how the districting commission would be constituted and how its maps would be adopted.

Staff said they would raise HB356 at the Utah Association of Counties meeting the following day and continue to coordinate with the League of Cities and Towns, county attorneys and local mayors.

Notes: The account above summarizes remarks and exchanges that occurred during the Feb. 19 legislative update. Quotations and procedural details come from the council's meeting transcript of that item.