HOLLADAY — Some Salt Lake County residents are clamoring to get into Holladay city, but county leaders may not let Millcreek residents leave with their healthy tax base in tow.
Residents in the southern tip of Millcreek Township want their portion of the township absorbed by neighboring Holladay city, which they say is better run and more responsive than county government.
That acreage — between 1300 East and Highland Drive to the west and 4500 South and Murray Holladay Road to the south — would include several county-owned parks and a commercial hot spot that supplies most of the area's sales tax revenues.
"The county is already expressing some major concern that we're taking a major portion of their tax base," Holladay city manager Randy Fitts said. "That makes them nervous."
Residents are also facing an uphill battle toward liberation from the county because portions of townships are not allowed to be carved off into cities without a majority vote from the entire area.
Garnering that majority from the entire 65-acre township is unlikely, Holladay Councilman Lynn Pace said. But residents are hopeful they can persuade the county council to redraw the boundaries of the township to allow the area to annex into Holladay.
If the boundary is re-jiggered, Millcreek residents would then need to gather signatures accounting for 50 percent of the land area requesting annexation.
"The County Council formed a township, drew a circle around this area and said you're locked in and you can't get out without our permission," Pace said. "People feel like they're held hostage against their will."
But Michael Chabries, aide to county councilman Mark Crockett, said the township isn't quite the hostage situation some residents portray. Rather, the township was created to protect residents and their sales tax dollars from being gobbled up by cherry-picking cities.
Crockett said he will respect the democratic process, however, if a majority of the township votes for annexation.
Redrawing the Millcreek boundaries to exclude the biggest piece of commercial property may not even be legal, Chabries said. More importantly, he added, several of the community councils within Millcreek have sent letters to the county asking the annexation request be denied.
"You can't just take a few select Millcreek residents and see if we can't push this down somebody's throat," he said. "There's some nice protections in there for Millcreek residents that are saying you're just raping and pillaging our tax base."
Millcreek resident George Allen, however, said he and many of his neighbors never wanted to be in the township, which was created three years ago. In fact, Allen said most of the people he has talked with about annexation already think they are Holladay citizens.
The main gripe, Allen noted, is that residents want more local representation with headquarters around the corner instead of in downtown Salt Lake.
"A lot of the County Council members seem out of touch and not very responsive to our needs," Allen said. "Everybody feels they are in Holladay already and we need to be officially part of the city."
Pace, however, said he understands the county's reluctance to hand over such a big chunk of commercial real estate, which includes an Albertsons and several other anchor retail stores.
That's why Pace and southern Millcreek residents are hoping to piggyback on an annexation of unincorporated county land just west of Holladay. That parcel has been inching toward absorption into Holladay for years and is awaiting a final vote from the County Council.
The area — directly south to the Van Winkle Expressway from the Millcreek border — is mostly residential, meaning Holladay is expanding its municipal service area without any new tax revenue. Adding the cash-rich Millcreek area to the equation may provide a way to offset the cost of new service areas, Pace said.
Pace added that the city might also be willing to kick back some tax revenue to the county if the city takes more than enough to cover the cost of new residents.
"If we can do this in a way that doesn't hurt anybody, what objection can they have to redrawing the boundaries?" he said.
Chabries, however, said he's skeptical that any such cost equalization could be achieved. Linking the two properties is also inappropriate, Chabries added, because the two areas have different legal requirements because one is a township.
"This is kind of what communities do. Just like when Salt Lake tries to carve out sections of Sugar House," he said. "This is what annexation is all about; we need to go for things that bring in revenue."
E-mail: estewart@desnews.com