Brighton planning commission forwards ski-resort boundary map to council after public hearing

The Brighton Town Planning Commission voted Oct. 15 to forward a recommended ski-resort-boundary map to the Brighton Town Council, sending the draft map and a staff recommendation that council consider either a map notation or a text amendment clarifying uses in the Nordic Center area.

Curtis (town planning staff) presented the map and described outreach with Solitude Mountain Resort, the U.S. Forest Service and Salt Lake City Public Utilities. He said the draft map shows a magenta line for the year-round resort boundary, a dashed white line for a Nordic area with more limited winter uses, and notations to acknowledge private properties inside the outer overlay. "We just left the overlap in because it doesn't seem to be causing anyone consternation at this point," Curtis said, describing an overlap near Twin Lakes where Salt Lake City Public Utilities owns the underlying parcels.

During the public hearing, several residents urged caution about including private homes inside the resort overlay. "I would be very, very unhappy if you include my home in the resort because it's not part of the resort," said Carrie Wood, a long-term Solitude Village resident, who asked commissioners to exclude village homes from any resort overlay that would affect owners' common-area rights.

Other speakers supported the staff map or asked for technical improvements. Hilary Bishop Scott urged commissioners to bring town code into alignment with the town's general plan and called the proposed ordinance "responsible development" that protects watershed and open space goals. Representatives of conservation and recreation groups — including Save Our Canyons and Wasatch Backcountry Alliance — commended staff work and asked for topographic versions showing ridgelines as boundaries to ensure development does not encroach on backcountry terrain.

Solitude representatives and other commenters cautioned that the adopted overlay would not, on its own, give a resort authority over private property; Amber Broadweiss said the map "is not gonna give any resort any more authority over private property owners." Staff and commissioners explained that being inside the overlay would allow a property owner who sold land to a resort to apply for a conditional use permit under resort standards, but it would not automatically change private ownership or private-property rights.

Commissioners discussed three ways to handle the Nordic area: include it inside the resort boundary with a distinct symbology and footnote; exclude it from the overlay and modify the code to acknowledge Nordic uses outside the map; or include it and add a clarifying text amendment. The commission's motion to forward the current map (magenta = resort proper; dashed white = Nordic area) to the council included a recommendation that council consider whether an asterisk/footnote on the map or a text amendment is the better long-term approach to recognize existing Nordic uses.

The commission approved the motion by voice vote and asked staff to prepare a PDF image of the recommended map and the suggested notation before sending the package to council. The referral means the council will receive the planning commission's recommendation, the draft ordinance language, and the map for its legislative review and final decision.

Next steps: staff will finalize a PDF of the map and include the recommended notation and possible text-amendment language for council consideration; the council will take final legislative action on the ordinance and the map.