Leaders of community councils in Salt Lake County's unincorporated areas say a change in the county's zoning rules could destroy the community council system.

The board of the United Association of Community Councils voted last week to oppose language that would shorten the notice period on zoning decisions made by the Salt Lake County Commission from 30 days to 14 days. United Association of Community Councils (UACC) is the umbrella organization for 25 community councils in unincorporated Salt Lake County.The new rule won't apply to the Planning Commission, Marsh said, although it will vote on the matter July 14. Under current ordinance, the Planning Commission is required to notify the community councils, but no time limit is required. In practice, a "courtesy" 30-day notice is given by the planning staff before Planning Commission decisions, according to Bill Marsh, planner with the Salt Lake County Planning Division. Marsh said the courtesy 30-day notice system wouldn't change under the new rules.

The rule would apply to the Salt Lake County Commission, which makes final decisions on zoning changes and changes to zoning ordinances based on a Planning Commission recommendation, Marsh said. Other zoning-related decisions, such as home occupations or conditional-use applications, are decided by the Planning Commission but may be appealed to the County Commission.

Although they don't have final say in zoning decisions, community councils are allowed to recommend or not recommend zoning plans to the Planning Commission. They also may give input to County Commission decisions. Many of the councils meet only once a month and fear if a 14-day rule is applied the councils' ability to review zoning matters could be impaired, they say.

UACC leaders believe people who live in unincorporated areas of the county would be shut out of the zoning process if the rule is adopted by the Planning Commission.

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"It would destroy the community council system," said Janet Geyser, the UACC representative from Mount Olympus. "We can't react fast enough in a 14-day period."

The board of UACC agreed to sign on to a letter prepared by the Granite Community Council that says the county has reneged on a deal made during legislative sessions to keep the notification at 30 days in Salt Lake County, although cities had pushed to have the rule changed to "at least 14 days."

"The councils finally submitted to the wishes of the cities with the commitment from the Salt Lake County planners that they would not ask for the 30-day notice to be reduced. We still believe we need this amount of time to provide for our meeting schedules. We also thought that Salt Lake County would not ask for this change as per their commitment," the letter says.

Marsh said he was not involved in discussions at the Legislature and couldn't comment on any "commitment" that may have been made with a supervisor who was on vacation. He said the ordinance change was prompted to make county law consistent with the new state law going into effect July 1.

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