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Grantsville plans for big growth
Jun 17, 2010 | 3783 views | 0 
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New policy would allow for eventual growth across the west side of valley
The Grantsville City Council has approved an annexation policy plan that could triple the current size of the city — eventually.
The plan would allow for large areas surrounding the city to be annexed into it for economic development and tax benefits, and for landowners to be incorporated into Grantsville City, according to Grantsville Mayor Brent Marshall.
“We’re looking at incorporating in areas that adjoin our community boundaries currently and annexing them into the city of Grantsville,” Marshall said. “Part of that will be for economic development to try to offset some of the tax burden upon the residents of Grantsville, while creating jobs and a commercial area for our citizens to be able to shop, dine and hopefully be able to get the amenities they travel elsewhere for now.”
However, Marshall said Grantsville’s current 17.9 square miles won’t balloon out all at once and it would take years for the entire area to be incorporated — if at all.
“It would be implemented in phases and part of it is we have to go through the annexation policy process,” Marshall said. “It only makes sense to have some vision when you do this and make it so you don’t have to, a few months down the road, look at creating another annexation plan to bring in a piece of property you left out. However, we are not currently annexing anybody. It is a plan that is in place and I’m sure at a future date parts of the annexation plan will be annexed into the city.”
City officials looked at annexing a similar land area in December 2006, and were conducting a cost-benefit analysis to see if the project was worthwhile, but no official annexation policy plan was approved.
The new annexation plan map includes the areas encompassing Miller Motorsports Park, the Deseret Peak Complex and Miller Business Park to the east, and the Morton Salt plant to the north. It borders the Tooele Army Depot to the south and runs along the foothills of the Stansbury Mountains to the west.
Marshall added that this plan is subject to change and an agreement between Grantsville, Tooele City and Tooele County still needs to be met regarding utilities. Grantsville already provides water to the county-owned Deseret Peak Complex, MMP and the Miller Business Park. Tooele City provides sewer, according to Tooele City Mayor Patrick Dunlavy.
Although Tooele County owns the Deseret Peak Complex, and the land where Miller Motorsports Park is located is leased from the county, Marshall said if this area were to be annexed in, the county would still operate the complex because they own it.
“Nothing can transpire until that agreement is reached,” Marshall said. “This is not something that’s arbitrarily happened. It’s something that’s been in the works for years, this is a part of that [the December 2006] idea. We’ve discussed it many times before but never pursued it.”
Tooele County Commissioner Bruce Clegg said the commission has seen the plan and have no issues with it.
“It’s certainly within their rights [to annex] if they feel they can afford to do it,” Clegg said.
Dunlavy also said he’s seen the plan.
“What’s Grantsville’s business is Grantsville’s business,” he said.
If Grantsville wants to actually annex the land, they would need the majority of the landowners in agreement with annexing.
They’ve been working with Tooele County and Marshall said they’re on board with the city.
“There’s some agreements that have got to be finalized before anything can happen,” Marshall said. “All this is is a plan. It’s a visionary plan and it’s part of the process.”
According to Grantsville City attorney Ron Elton, the city’s existing annexation plan runs as a half-mile band around city limits and was drafted 10 years ago. He added that the annexation policy plan indicates areas where the city would consider annexation if certain criteria were met.
“The plan is not by itself an annexation, but it’s an indication to land owners who live in these areas that the city will consider annexation,” Elton said. “If this was not adopted, those landowners would not be able to annex.”
The policy plan also says that all proposed annexation would have to be contiguous, with no islands or peninsulas of land.
“It’s a plan that allows you flexibility to be able to grow in certain directions to grow and still be manageable,” Marshall said. “It’s not just bigger but better.
He said the next step in to this process is to work out an agreement with Tooele County regarding Deseret Peak Complex’s utilities.
“It’s been a lengthy process and it’s one of those things we’ve been diligently working on trying to create areas where we have some commercial growth and to not interfere with someone’s backyard,” Marshall said. “We want to create shopping districts or industrial areas. There’s lots of options that could become available, once we make this thing come to reality.”
Missy Thompson: missy@tooeletranscript.com
The Grantsville City Council has approved an annexation policy plan that could triple the current size of the city — eventually.
The plan would allow for large areas surrounding the city to be annexed into it for economic development and tax benefits, and for landowners to be incorporated into Grantsville City, according to Grantsville Mayor Brent Marshall.
“We’re looking at incorporating in areas that adjoin our community boundaries currently and annexing them into the city of Grantsville,” Marshall said. “Part of that will be for economic development to try to offset some of the tax burden upon the residents of Grantsville, while creating jobs and a commercial area for our citizens to be able to shop, dine and hopefully be able to get the amenities they travel elsewhere for now.”
However, Marshall said Grantsville’s current 17.9 square miles won’t balloon out all at once and it would take years for the entire area to be incorporated — if at all.
“It would be implemented in phases and part of it is we have to go through the annexation policy process,” Marshall said. “It only makes sense to have some vision when you do this and make it so you don’t have to, a few months down the road, look at creating another annexation plan to bring in a piece of property you left out. However, we are not currently annexing anybody. It is a plan that is in place and I’m sure at a future date parts of the annexation plan will be annexed into the city.”
City officials looked at annexing a similar land area in December 2006, and were conducting a cost-benefit analysis to see if the project was worthwhile, but no official annexation policy plan was approved.
The new annexation plan map includes the areas encompassing Miller Motorsports Park, the Deseret Peak Complex and Miller Business Park to the east, and the Morton Salt plant to the north. It borders the Tooele Army Depot to the south and runs along the foothills of the Stansbury Mountains to the west.
Marshall added that this plan is subject to change and an agreement between Grantsville, Tooele City and Tooele County still needs to be met regarding utilities. Grantsville already provides water to the county-owned Deseret Peak Complex, MMP and the Miller Business Park. Tooele City provides sewer, according to Tooele City Mayor Patrick Dunlavy.
Although Tooele County owns the Deseret Peak Complex, and the land where Miller Motorsports Park is located is leased from the county, Marshall said if this area were to be annexed in, the county would still operate the complex because they own it.
“Nothing can transpire until that agreement is reached,” Marshall said. “This is not something that’s arbitrarily happened. It’s something that’s been in the works for years, this is a part of that [the December 2006] idea. We’ve discussed it many times before but never pursued it.”
Tooele County Commissioner Bruce Clegg said the commission has seen the plan and have no issues with it.
“It’s certainly within their rights [to annex] if they feel they can afford to do it,” Clegg said.
Dunlavy also said he’s seen the plan.
“What’s Grantsville’s business is Grantsville’s business,” he said.
If Grantsville wants to actually annex the land, they would need the majority of the landowners in agreement with annexing.
They’ve been working with Tooele County and Marshall said they’re on board with the city.
“There’s some agreements that have got to be finalized before anything can happen,” Marshall said. “All this is is a plan. It’s a visionary plan and it’s part of the process.”
According to Grantsville City attorney Ron Elton, the city’s existing annexation plan runs as a half-mile band around city limits and was drafted 10 years ago. He added that the annexation policy plan indicates areas where the city would consider annexation if certain criteria were met.
“The plan is not by itself an annexation, but it’s an indication to land owners who live in these areas that the city will consider annexation,” Elton said. “If this was not adopted, those landowners would not be able to annex.”
The policy plan also says that all proposed annexation would have to be contiguous, with no islands or peninsulas of land.
“It’s a plan that allows you flexibility to be able to grow in certain directions to grow and still be manageable,” Marshall said. “It’s not just bigger but better.
He said the next step in to this process is to work out an agreement with Tooele County regarding Deseret Peak Complex’s utilities.
“It’s been a lengthy process and it’s one of those things we’ve been diligently working on trying to create areas where we have some commercial growth and to not interfere with someone’s backyard,” Marshall said. “We want to create shopping districts or industrial areas. There’s lots of options that could become available, once we make this thing come to reality.”
Missy Thompson: missy@tooeletranscript.com
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