SALT LAKE CITY — Bob Cameron says he feels like a disenfranchised colonist in King George's time, forking over money to a distant government that does not account for the dollars or return much of them to his canyon community.
Cameron and some fellow Big Cottonwood Canyon residents sponsored a petition drive that ended up in the Utah Lt. Governor's Office to pursue forming a new town called Brighton.
State Elections Director Mark Thomas said residents must meet the legal requirements of gathering 20 percent of the signatures of registered voters and 20 percent of the land valuations. The paperwork was submitted Tuesday, kicking off a statutory 20-day deadline for review.
If that threshold is met, Friends of Big Cottonwood Canyon will enter the next phase of a feasibility study to determine whether the new town would be financially viable over a five-year period. If so, canyon residents will vote on incorporation, possibly in June 2018.
Barb Cameron, head of the Big Cottonwood Canyon Community Council and Bob's wife, said the pressure of increased visitation in the canyon and persistent related problems are central to the incorporation drive.
While the council has not yet taken a position on forming a new town, she said residents want the state to launch the feasibility study.
"Through the years, I think we have developed closer relations to the county, and they have been helpful, but they have not committed the money. It is hard to understand because of the increased visitation," Barb Cameron said.
Carolyn Keigley, another petition sponsor and member of the community council, said the issue of the three "T's" — toilets, traffic and trails — have been inadequately addressed for years.
"There is an overwhelming sense of frustration on the part of the council," she said. "There are many issues that are not being dealt with in our community."
A University of Utah engineering study released earlier this year predicted visitation will reach 3 million people in Big Cottonwood Canyon by 2040, or three-quarters of the visitors Yellowstone National Park will receive but in a geographic footprint that is 1 percent its size.
Residents have complained to Salt Lake County, and while elected leaders listen, Keigley said little gets done to tackle issues such as seasonal toilets inadequate for canyon visitors.
While both Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County have agreed to dedicate additional revenue to improve restroom facilities in the canyon, Bob Cameron said the funding opened up only after talk of incorporation began to spread.
"We've been asking for other things," he said. "They keep giving us dribs and drabs."
Bob Cameron said he doesn't believe there has been willful neglect on the county's part, but there is the difficulty of the canyon caught in the labyrinth of multiple jurisdictions that include the county, Salt Lake City, the state — which owns the main thoroughfare — and the U.S. Forest Service.
"We think that people in the county are well-meaning, but they do not have the eyes and ears close to the ground up here, and they really don't know what is happening," he said. "We think we could better monitor things, and we could invest the money being raised up here in the canyon for the benefit of the canyon."
The Brighton incorporation petition follows that of residents in a 2015 successful effort where residents in four neighborhoods voted to transform Millcreek Township into Millcreek city.
Some residents in that area complained they lacked representation and were paying too much for police and fire services, while others feared taxes would go up if they officially broke away from Salt Lake County.
Bob Cameron said the incorporation of Brighton, if successful, does not mean taxes will be lowered or raised, but residents would have a greater say over how revenue is spent.
Critics of the incorporation effort, such as Save Our Canyons, say it's motivated by a desire to develop land in the canyon at the expense of the watershed.
Cameron and Keigley say none of the petition sponsors are developers and instead are retirees and people with conservation backgrounds.